JAY — The Regional School Unit 73 board of directors learned Thursday night of two major developments in the district and an effort to reduce high school dropouts.
The updates focused on rising reading and writing performance among the district’s youngest students and planned structural upgrades at Spruce Mountain Primary School in Livermore.
Julie Bolduc, a Title I reading specialist, told the board that as the district nears the end of its first year using a new reading program, the share of students reading at or above grade level has increased, especially among third and fourth graders.
Bolduc, who described herself as a “literacy coach for grades K-5,” reported on HMH, a program the district purchased from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. and implemented this year in kindergarten through fifth grade.
Among third graders, those reading at or above the standard level for their grade rose to 73 percent from 60 percent. That’s an increase of nearly one‑quarter. Fourth graders rose to 64 percent from 57 percent, an increase of nearly one‑eighth. Fifth graders stayed at 58 percent.
“Thirty‑five students were struggling with reading at the start of the year,” Bolduc said, “and now we’re down to nine.”
In conjunction with another national program, Really Great Reading, the district has been emphasizing phonics and integrating subjects to improve pupils’ reading.
“We had a lot of gaps (in reading performance) at the start,” Bolduc said, “but now we’re meeting the national norm and no longer need (the Really Great Reading program’s) phonics in grades four and five.”
Part of the program, she said, involves reading passages and stories several times, each time with a different focus. That, she added, gives pupils who have difficulty understanding a reading “alternative opportunities to get into the story.”
According to an outline provided by HMH, young pupils should spend 120 to 150 minutes a day on reading. RSU 73 has been able to vary the amount of time given to each segment, such as small‑group work and vocabulary, as needed to help pupils.
Bolduc said the feedback she has received from teachers in the primary (K‑2) and elementary (3‑5) schools has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Across the board, K‑5, they absolutely loved the vocabulary unit, and it shows,” she said. “It is the highest‑performing unit we have.”
Pupils love it, too, she said.
“You can hear the kids saying, ‘I see the word, I see the word,’ and then using the words they are learning,” Bolduc said.
In the other development, Wayne Neil, the facilities and maintenance director for RSU 73, outlined the schedule for upgrades at the Spruce Mountain Primary School in Livermore. Crews are scheduled to begin installing new roofing June 16, the day after the school year ends, and to start installing a propane boiler system June 22.
Voters approved both projects April 28. Each is expected to cost between $700,000 and $800,000.
The roof project will not need new funding. Superintendent Scott Albert told Monitor Local earlier this year that the district would use $200,000 from a capital reserve account, and voters approved taking $575,000 from carryover funds for the roofing.
If all goes well, the new boiler system will not involve new money but will extend the district’s bonded indebtedness. By the end of the 2026‑27 school year, the district will have paid off a bond that financed reroofing the high school, so the money raised to pay off that loan will continue to be raised each year to retire the debt from the boiler project.
The four propane burners will replace three outdated oil burners. Propane, a petroleum byproduct, generally costs less per unit of heat than oil. And the district can save money on insurance premiums by burying the tanks in the ground, Albert said earlier.
RSU 73 Director Tanya DeMillo told other members of the board that the Dropout Prevention Committee had been working to understand why “28 students were leaving Spruce Mountain High School for adult education.”
DeMillo said committee member and RSU 73 Director Don Emery held exit interviews with some of the students and heard such explanations as “academic frustration, feeling emotionally overwhelmed, disciplinary practices, social pressure, mental health challenges and lack of meaningful adult interaction.”
DeMillo said the high school is working on those issues and has arranged for more community‑based social workers. The district also needs to be able to better identify students who are at risk of dropping out and to develop a new advisory program.
She said the committee is also looking into reducing the number of credits needed to graduate, which she said are “higher than other Maine high schools.”
Emery said his exit interviews surprised him in that many of the students who were dropping out “took some responsibility for the developments” that led to their leaving school.
“They didn’t just blame teachers and administrators,” he said.
In another update, Robyn Raymond, director of adult and community education, reported that 187 people are enrolled in adult classes, 11 more than in March. She said 94 students were in the countywide digital learning program, an increase of 16, and 23 were graduating in high school completion classes.
