Nestled in the woods off a back road in western Maine you will find Cape Cod Community School. Part of the Regional School Unit (RSU) 9 of the Mount Blue area, Cape Cod Hill takes a different approach to serving its community. It is one of just a handful of Community Schools located in Maine.

A community school model, as defined by the Coalition for Community Schools, is both a place and a set of partnerships between the school and other community resources. Community schools exist in all regions of the United States and their numbers are growing fast.

In Maine, the community school model was first recognized by Maine Legislative Action of the First Regular Session of the 127th Legislature (2015-2016), in the budget bill Public Law 2015, chapter 267. At that time, the Maine DOE was authorized to fund a limited number of community schools, established under 20-A MRSA Chapter 333. Currently, three schools in Maine receive funding from the Maine Department of Education (DOE) to support their community school strategies: the Gerald E. Talbot School in Portland, Old Town Elementary School in Old Town, and the Cape Cod Hill Community School in New Sharon.

In its second year of implementation, Cape Cod Hill Community School has already put a lot of resources and strategies into place with big plans for many more to follow. Principal Carol Kiesman along with Social Worker Amanda Clark and School Nurse Jesstine Meader are the force behind these big changes and they work as a team to tackle the role of Community School Coordinator. An essential part of the success of a community school.

To accomplish a community school model, the team at Cape Cod Hill has garnered countless resources through ongoing partnerships throughout the Franklin County region and beyond to offer students and their families support beyond academics. Resources like behavioral health by way of counseling services for families and children through an outpatient counselor who comes to the school to see children in addition to case management through Maine Behavioral Health Organization. Also now available are dental health services offered to every child right at school, food and nutrition resources available through the school’s food pantry, and many more partnerships that bring in community members, resources, and services that benefit students and families.

“In the past things were more academic-centered, this is more community-centered,” explains Kiesman. “This is looking at the whole child and what can we offer to the children and the families besides academics. Yes, academics are huge, they are important, but we know that there is more to children’s lives than just academics.”

One of the most successful and new programs started by the school is its no-cost before and after-care program which runs from 7:00 am to 4:30 pm on school days. The program allows parents to work without having to find care for their children for those couple of hours before and after school that never seem to line up just right with the average workday. This program has been a game-changer for many of their families and the fact that there is no income threshold makes it that much more accessible for everyone. The Community Schools grant funding provided by the Maine DOE made this program possible.

Pictures from the Before and After-Care Program:

One of the ongoing programs the team has up and running is its food pantry, which also serves as a clothing and book pantry as well as bringing much-needed resources to the community. The pantry has been around for a while but the team at Cape Cod Hill has gotten innovative in maximizing its impact in recent years by creating discrete access to the pantry via a side door to the school, giving community members a way to grab what they need without having to make a grand entrance. They’ve also been able to utilize the help of community partners like Good Shephard Food Bank who help with food donations and have welcomed help from community members who come in regularly to keep the pantry organized and stocked with foods and other resources that families need and want.

Other ongoing partnerships include Franklin County Adult Ed providing monthly classes at Cape Codd Hill Community School on things like cyber security, social-emotional learning topics, and multi-tiered systems of support/response to intervention components that can be implemented at home. They have also invited the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department over for monthly “lunch and jokes” in which members of the Sheriff’s Office get to dine with the students at lunchtime and exchange good-humored stories and jokes.

“We are going beyond our four walls,” said Clark. “Maine schools are providing a lot of these things and they are doing amazing work. I think, for us, the community school initiative and model gave us that extra layer of support to be able to provide the things we felt like we were missing.”

Community schools foster a shared vision for student success and thoughtfully engage the community in making the vision a reality. Over time, community schools become the center a of community where everyone belongs, works together and thrives. They become the hub of their neighborhoods and communities, uniting families, educators and community partners toward student success.

To hear directly from the team at Cape Cod Hill Community School, check out this 5-minute video interview where Kiesman and Clark talk about their journey to becoming a community school and their plans for the future:

Maine DOE has welcomed Community Schools Consultant Ann Hanna, who has joined the Maine DOE Office of School and Student Supports. Hanna proudly served as the principal of the Gerald E. Talbot Community School in Portland where she led the school through a transformative process to become a Community School. Hanna will be working on advancing Community School strategies in interested schools across Maine by providing technical assistance and support as needed.  The Maine DOE is also working on the next application for funding for SY 24-25, and information on that will be shared via Newsroom in the coming months.

To learn more about community schools in Maine, please contact Ann Hanna, at ann.c.hanna@maine.gov.