ST GEORGE, Maine — Toward the end of a long peninsula, the St. George School has just 200 students, pre-K through 8th grade.
In 2015, the district became independent and reshaped its curriculum. The school board created a career and technical education program and a small makerspace.
NEWS CENTER Maine asked board members, parents, teachers, and students, about the results so far. The consensus is it’s been dramatic, and it’s only evolving.
“We're on the end of a peninsula, and we're like almost an island community,” said Kristin Falla, the school board vice chair. “But that also unites us in our own special way.”
Fourth-grade teacher Jaime MacCaffray said students as young as eight learn to use 3D printers.
“They love it,” she smiled. “They're challenged every day and they challenge me every day with all of the learning we're doing.”
Students help shape the curriculum at St. George. NEWS CENTER Maine spoke with eighth graders BJ and Lars, who said they didn’t care much for school three years prior. BJ’s mother, Veronica, said she had to drag her son to school those days.
Now, BJ loves going to class. What changed?
Paul Meinersmann has been the school’s technology and makerspace director since 2015. He said in BJ’s less enthusiastic days, he discovered what the teen enjoyed. Among other pursuits, BJ loved the family cats. So, Meinersmann asked him if he’d like to design and code an automatic cat feeder.
“Once I got in here, I realized how fun it was. Then I didn't want to leave,” BJ explained.
Lars found his passion as well. He showed NEWS CENTER Maine a cubesat he designed that won a recent state middle school competition. The cubesat is a small cube device that records data. Lars’ cubesat recorded which color rods reacted the most to temperature changes. His device recorded data during a suborbital flight over Earth. He is now considering a career in computer engineering.
“I had a concern that I wouldn't be successful in life and that I would end up broke, or something,” Lars recalled about the moment he realized his passion for tech. “And, so, that was really exciting to me because I was, like, ‘Oh, wow, it's kind of like a failsafe.’"
Meanwhile, BJ and Meinersmann designed and built a sort of whack-a-mole light game. In addition to coding and 3D printing, BJ said he’s honed hands-on skills working with tools and machines. He’s considering a wide range of careers, engineering chief among them.
The innovative lessons led to grants, and now the school is in line for future-altering money.
St. George was announced as a semi-finalist for a national Yass award, and a $1 million grand prize. The school was awarded $200,000 just for being one of 33 semifinalists.
Jeff Yass is one of the country’s largest conservative donors, and has been a staunch supporter of the hotly debated “school choice” movement.
St. George Superintendent Mike Felton said his school is one of only two traditional public schools among the award semifinalists.
But this story is not about politics. This story is about the growth the kids had seen long before this money came to be, and how the school is going all-in.
As of October, the district had raised $2 million, from grants and community donors, to build a new makerspace on campus. They need $3 million total - a massive investment. A win in the Yass competition would almost certainly push St. George over the project’s finish line.
Back in the classroom, BJ said he loved the program so much, even though he will have moved on to high school long before the new makerspace is completed, he sold eggs from his family’s chickens to donate money to the project.
With results like that, the school isn’t looking back.
“It's opened new doors for everybody, so, I wouldn't go back, wouldn't go back to the old fashioned way,” MacCaffray said. “This is the new type of learning for me.”
The winner of the $1 million grand prize will be announced in December. The school board hopes to break ground on the new makerspace building just after that - in the coming winter or early in the spring of 2024.