When Cornerstone Christian Academy in Presque Isle abruptly closed in August, most of the students ended up enrolling in the Easton School District.
According to Easton schools superintendent Roger Shaw about 50 students from Cornerstone Christian Academy enrolled in Easton across the K-12 grades, even though Easton is not the home district for most of them.
“A lot of students requested to go here,” Shaw said. “I think it’s gone well for students. I know parents have been supportive. It’s just another day in the neighborhood for us.”
While it’s not clear how many students were enrolled in Cornerstone before it closed due to financial problems, the private Christian school counted 66 students during the 2016-2017 school year.
The families of those students who enrolled in Easton were likely drawn by the culture of the small district, with class sizes of well under 20 students and a focus on more personalized attention, Shaw said.
The influx of students to Easton brings the district’s total enrollment this year to 247 — in line with the district’s enrollment about a decade ago, Shaw said. While Easton’s overall population has remained relatively stable in the last decade thanks largely to Amish settlers, the town’s school district has been affected by out-migration and seen significant enrollment declines like just about every other school system in Aroostook County.
Accommodating the small surge in enrollment was overall a modest challenge, Shaw said. With those 50 students spread out across all of the grades, that meant that classes with 12 students might increase in size to 15 or 16 students and the biggest challenge was buying extra textbooks, he said.
Shaw noted that it’s possible some of this year’s new students will choose another district in the years to come, since most are not from Easton.
At the same time, Easton has “a fair number of students who come here from other districts,” Shaw said.
In addition to the students from Cornerstone, Easton has about 30 students from other districts who attend through tuition agreements, where their home district directs per-student funds to Easton.
Parents can request such arrangements, if they feel a school outside their home district is a better fit for their students. Under state rules, parents also have the obligation to transport their children to the school outside their district, Shaw said.
