Declining School Population

At last weeks SAD # 29 School Board Meeting, Houlton Superintendent Steven Fitzpatrick made a comment about the projected number of students. He predicted by the year 2017 that Houlton High School would have only 200 students. That's less than half of the students that are presently attending HHS.

Reasons for this:

First and foremost, is the simple fact that Houlton is an aging town.

Second, is that many, many young people leave town to further their education and do not return.

Third, is Greater Houlton Christian Academy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not in any way knocking the place - but the simple fact is that school is growing each year. A good portion of their students come from the Houlton and Hodgdon School districts thus, contributing to the decline at both of the aforementioned schools.

Possible Partial Solutions:

First: Increase attendence by offering something other schools do not. Houlton has an outstanding music program. There is a plan in place to expand the Fine Arts Program. Once this becomes a reality, it will draw some students. This is a start

Second: Find a way to keep more students in town after graduation. There has been a start to this with the opening of the Houlton Higher Eduacation Center. UMPI and NMCC both offer some classes here. Too bad Ricker College closed; but I digress. The outreach center is a good start.

Third: Attract new businesses to Town. This needs to be done sooner than later. Unfortunatly, it is much harder to do, than it is to say . People need a place to work, a place where they can make money. Good Money. Perhaps Town Council should visit neighboring Woodstook, New Brunswick for ideas. Their Town has EXPLODED in the past 5-8 years with growth.

Fourth: One suggestted solution has been to combine the Houlton and Hodgdon High Schools. At the State level, they encourage consolidation of schools that are as close as these two are. While that would help keep Houlton's school full; it would totaly destroy the fabric of the Town of Hodgdon if they had to shutter thier school in my opinion.

Times are changing and the schools are changing with them. There are no easy answers to some very hard questions. However, we shouldn't be looking back at "what was", we should be looking ahead at "what can be". The time to start planning for change is now. voice your opinion, Together, we are going to go through this changing time, like it or not.

That's the View from My Couch