After Upward Bound ended I spent a few days in Joesport, my mother's hometown and one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Jonesport is also located in Washington County which has the highest poverty rate in the sate of Maine. It was depressing to see how much property was for sale in this small coastal town. When I went online to see the prices of some of these properties, they were outrageous!
I talked with a few "locals" about what has been happening and why so many people were leaving Jonesport. They feel that it may be due to the new plan to make regional schools. Currently Jonesport's elementary school has about 100 kids and Beals Island's elementary school has 40. What the governor is proposing is to close both of the schools and build a new regional school in Machias (about 30-40 minutes away) and bus the kids from both Jonesport and Beals to the regional school. The people in the community are distressed because both of the schools are paid for and they are important parts of the community.
People are also concerned that it will lead to more drop outs because some of the kids aren't motivated as it is to stay in school, knowing they will be fishing for a living, so making it harder to get there might contribute to the problem more. This will most likely also eliminate Class D sports because of the consolidation and sports are a huge part of the culure of these small towns.
It is sad to see what is happening to such an amazing place. If any thing, I think they need more resources brought to them, not taken away. What will happen?
As a former student of a school in a small town I must say that I know most of the people I went to school with were only motivated to go for the sports. A loss of the class D sports teams would make a huge impact, and not a good one. Even if kids are put into Class C or B it will mean tryouts and less kids making the teams. I believe the drop out rate would increase much more and the Governor, I am sure, hasn't taken this into consideration. Love your project though. Keep up the great work!
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