What is significant about our schools? What are the top 10 desired outcomes that would define success in our schools? What are the top 10 obstacles within our schools that prevent desired outcomes? What are the teaching/learning/training models you wish to explore but cannot be supported now? These are the questions being asked of administration, teachers, students, and community members as part of gathering information for the “Master Plan” for our school system.

Boothbay Region Elementary School and Boothbay Region High School need repairs totaling ten million dollars. Because of this, we need to decide whether to fix our existing schools or move into the future with a brand new campus. In addition, decisions need to be made regarding curriculum and school offerings. So far, the school committee has hired a team of professionals, Lavalee and Brensinger Architects, which is a New Hampshire based firm, who according to their website claims “We are passionate about creating spaces that enrich and empower our clients and those they serve.”  But what good is their passion without adequate participation from our community, students, faculty and staff?

January 17th and 18th, the firm held focus groups for all stakeholders to participate in “visioning” workshops. Unfortunately, the workshops were not well attended. The first workshop held for the high-school students had a total of four kids out of approximately 175 in attendance. This is not an ideal representation of the student body when considering how to renovate our entire school campus. The opportunity for high school students to voice their ideas was scheduled on a Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m., a time that was difficult for students to attend. I am hopeful that another workshop will be scheduled at a time when all students could participate and voice their ideas--for example, during homeroom time, at an all-student assembly, or even by sending out a survey, including the questions asked in the workshop, to all students. It is important to hear the students’ ideas because we are the ones who spend seven hours or more each day actually using the facilities.

I, for one, think our schools would benefit from a state of the art facility, whether it be new or refurbished. A change I think would be important to attract more students to our school system would be the addition of a vocational program that would cater to anyone who is interested in trade professions such as carpenter, electrician, plumber, etc. Presently, our students, as well as students from surrounding areas, travel to Bath for courses in these fields. If we had a new facility or addition with career/trades offerings, we could attract more students to enroll in our school system. Instead of renovating our existing campus only for the declining number of students --- an option which has been discussed --- we should concentrate on expanding our schools, making them a learning destination for families who are deciding where to send their children.

Another idea would be moving the cafeteria to a first or second floor where there are windows, and enough room for all students to eat lunch. Currently, our cafeteria is in the basement and is too small to accommodate all students at lunch. The lunch ladies have made a big effort down there to make it an inviting environment, but I can see students enjoying a cafeteria with natural light and more open space.

As you can see, we all have ideas of how our schools could be improved; we just need to make it a priority that all students have a voice in what happens to our schools. Some say schools are the heart of a community, and right now we have an opportunity to better our schools and attract more students to them. Let’s start by voicing our thoughts and ideas and making sure they are heard by providing additional discussion opportunities at times during the school day, when all students are available.