Staff Writer
CARIBOU — School started for many Aroostook youths with all its subtraction, sharpened pencils and scraped knees, but the beginning of the school isn’t quite the same for the former students of the Solid Rock Academy who will be finding alternative means of education for the next few months while they await the re-opening of their school.
Due to staffing changes and complications due to space constraints, church officials decided not to re-open the faith-based school this fall.
Solid Rock Academy, which had just about 30 kids at the end of school last year, was previously run by Pastor Myron Powell and Principal Jackie Farris in conjunction with the Solid Rock Worship Center, located on the Fort Fairfield Road in Caribou. Both school leaders were reassigned through the church earlier this summer.
The school taught many children of the congregation and the general public alike, and the success of Solid Rock Academy students is one reason that Kim Lowell decided to re-open the school.
“The Academy will be moved to a different building and even though it will not have a direct connection with the Solid Rock Worship Center, everything is going to be run the same,” Lowell said.
Currently Lowell and other advocates for the school are seeking a new building that better suits the needs of the students.
Many of the school’s former students have already started their education either through home-schooling or though public education; students can be re-tested when the school opens to ensure proper placement in the same Accelerated Christian Education curriculum (ACE) that students of the previous academy excelled in.
Lowell is confident that through the ACE and the one-on-one attention Solid Rock Academy students receive, youths of the school will continue making high marks; she has learned a lot about the school from previous educators and is confident that a Solid Rock Academy educational background is exactly what many students need.
“We’re able to provide the one-on-one attention for the kids who need it and because we closely monitor and test our students, we know what subjects they need improvements in and are able to effectively help them,” she said. Utilizing the ACE, Solid Rock Academy educators strive to keep all students testing at an 80 percent or higher.
While school details are still being finalized, Lowell estimates that the academy will be open by early winter but stresses that students should not wait until the school opens to begin their education.
Additional information about the new Solid Rock Academy can be obtained by calling Lowell at 325-1016.
