HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club met for its luncheon meeting on Monday, March 26, hosting RSU 29 Superintendent Ellen Halliday.
The guest of Rotarian Jerry Wilson, Halliday focused her presentation on grants that she and her department have been writing to obtain funds for important projects for the area schools. There are currently five regional grants the district is pursuing. Those grants are Educational Efficiencies (also called Embrace 1); Integration and Consolidation of Facilities; Major Capital Construction; Regional Service Center; and Embrace 2. The regional partners are RSU 29, RSU 50 (Southern Aroostook), RSU 89 (Katahdin) SAD 70 (Hodgdon), RSU 84 (Danforth) and Region 2.
The first regional project is a new repair and maintenance garage for the school buses. The regional partners had a $415,000 grant approved. The Interlocal agreement is managed by RSU 29. The Southern Aroostook Regional Transportation Facility is located on the Bangor Road and was the Triple M Potato House. It is being retrofitted as a garage with a new heating system that burns waste engine oil. A full time mechanic and one helper is expected to be hired. The grand opening for this center will be July 1.
The Integrated Consolidated Regional High School grant application is a two-part process. Eight entities applied and three were selected for part one. Willard Daggett an educational specialist helped with the process. The future of education is to prepare for future jobs.
A major capital construction project that Halliday spoke about is the Houlton Elementary School. This school was built in the early 1970s when the open classroom concept was popular. The building is now overcrowded and definitely outdated. Teams of evaluators have visited the building from the Department of Education as part of the application process for a grant to replace the building. Now is the time in the application process where the DOE reviews 80 applications for the funds available.
Halliday gave the group a hand out titled “Regional Service Centers At A Glance.” These centers are what the DOE considers as a new way of organizing and delivering regional services to schools. A School Management and Leadership Center is formed voluntarily and there are financial incentives for the members. More funding is given per student for administration and for subsidized pupil count, and direct state funding for 55 percent of the executive director’s salary and benefits as well as 100 percent of the cost of an accounting and payroll system and 100% of the costs of a student information system. Part 1 of this application is completed with Part 2 due by April 14.
An Embrace 2 Grant is for regional alternative education similar to the Carleton Project. Funds are available to have a regional center to the tune of 570 thousand dollars. Keeping this separate from the high school is important. This is in its infancy stage. An interlocal agreement would share staff training and RSU 29 would be the fiscal agent.
A reminder was also given for Bingo night on April 5 and Rotarians with signage opportunities will post this for the public.
The guest for the day was Connor Grant who is home from Colorado for a visit and is the son of Rotarian Fred Grant.
