SeDoMoCha students move outside

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

CHARLESTON — Over a month into the school year, SeDoMoCha School students past and present have been involved in a number of projects both in and out of the classroom, the school board learned during an Oct. 6 meeting at the Charleston Community Center.

SeDoMoCha School Principal Julie Kimball said literacy teacher Carolyn Clark had been talking with Michelle Fagan of the Thompson Free Library in Dover-Foxcroft about making students more aware of what the library has to offer. Kimball said Fagan has visited the school and at the end of September the entire fourth grade walked over to the Thompson Free Library on a Tuesday afternoon.

Kimball said she had been contacted during the previous school year by Crystal Macomber of the Foxcroft Academy Key Club about the possibility of students from the secondary school volunteering at SeDoMoCha Elementary. Now Foxcroft Academy pupils spend time with the youngsters, reading together and providing support. Some seventh- and eighth-graders also spend their daily recess time with elementary students.

“It’s exciting to see that leadership piece come from within,” Kimball said, as the volunteer programs were initiated by the middle-schoolers and SeDoMoCha alumna.

Another project that has begun involves the nature trail across Harrison Avenue from the school, with Clark and grade 7 science teacher Mary Kate Povak both being a part of this endeavor. “There are definite needs we need to look at,” Kimball said. “We essentially want it to be an outdoor classroom.”

Kimball and Clark have met with Dover-Foxcroft Town Manager Jack Clukey to determine which parts of the trail belong to the school district and what is on town property. The plan is to have several students make assessments of the trail, and Povak will have an exploratory session focus on improving the path.

“We are pretty excited about what the potential is,” Kimball said. She said because the Appalachian Trail goes through Monson and students residing in this community attend SeDoMoCha, RSU 68 may  be eligible for grants to help improve the nature trail.

Recently volunteers from the Piscataquis County University of Maine Cooperative Extension Executive Committee spent a Saturday cleaning out the SeDoMoCha garden. Kimball said pumpkins and garlic are being grown in the garden and will be harvested soon.

Superintendent Robert Lucy said the Civil Rights Teams at SeDoMoCha and Foxcroft Academy would be working together on “activities that promote positive school climate” and the Builder’s Club would be joining the Key Club on some programs.

In other business, the school board heard from Brian Welsh of the Tri-County Technical Center (TCTC) in Dexter, which offers programs to students from Foxcroft Academy and five other high schools in the region.

“Overall things are going very, very well at TCTC,” Welsh said. He said the current enrollment is 260 students, and “we’re full at 254, we’re growing.”

Welsh said Foxcroft Academy has worked with TCTC to offer a bridge year program. These students will receive their diplomas from Foxcroft Academy, the various certifications offered through TCTC they choose as well as 30 college credits. He said the bridge year has 12 in the current cohort with another 20 in the second group.

“They finish high school with the first year of college complete,” Welsh said. “I think this is a program we can all be proud of that can help the high schools and the tech school and most of all the students.”

The school board appointed four coaches and an assistant for the winter athletic season. Joshua Kimball will be coaching boys A team basketball, Gayle Allen is the girls A basketball coach, Alexis Coleman will lead the girls B team, Robin Brasslett is the cheering coach and Heather Whitten will serve as the practice monitor.

“The practice monitor oversees the study session as they wait for the next practice,” Lucy said, with the various teams having their time on the courts staggered after school.

He said Kimball coached boys B basketball the year before and Allen and Brasslett will both be returning to their positions. He said the boys B basketball coach search is still ongoing.