Submitted by Ashlee Savage, Administrative Assistant for Cornville Regional Charter School
The Cornville Regional Charter School is doing some amazing things district wide. As a district, we are community-center and uncompromisingly learner-centered. We have 3 schools that serve a variety of age ranges from Prek to Grade 10.
Our Early Childhood Campus serves learners ages 4-6 and are working very hard to pull in community members and businesses into the classrooms. This happens in a variety of ways from having those people come directly into the classrooms to run learning opportunities to setting up different centers in the room to represent different businesses. This campus also does a great job with scheduling and hosting parent involvement nights.
Our Cornville Campus offers a variety of opportunities for learners, facilitators, and families. Each learner participates in special interest groups 3 days a week. These special, unique offerings include, but are not limited, to knitting, rhythmic gymnastics, snowshoeing, robotics, gym games, felt art, painting, etc. Our schedule also allows learners to move from room to room as needed throughout the day to ensure that everyone’s education is customized to their needs. For facilitators, they receive a numerous amount of professional development. Every Friday our district has an early release day which allows staff to partake in meaningful PD for the last 3 hours of each week. Lastly, the Cornville Campus has great parent involvement. We offer multiple celebration of learning nights, book fairs, grandparents luncheon, and numerous PTF events.
Our Downtown Campus has 1/3 of the sophomore class currently enrolled in a college course, 2 of the learners are part of the Maine Meals (a local business) team participating in the Maine Center for Entrepreneurship Top Gun program at Thomas College, 1 of the learners is a member of the Somerset Public Health’s board, several of the learners are involved in building a wooden boat with a local community member, and several of the learners have volunteered at a local retirement home and at the local humane society. As a school, they are also putting together a full fabrication lab that is accessible to not only all of the learners but also to community partners. Community involvement is super important and with the downtown campus being right in the heart of Skowhegan, it is the perfect opportunity to get our learners working and learning beside community members.
