HOULTON, Maine – Houlton town councilors supported the work of a Houlton-based private alternative high school by approving a $50,000 Maine Community Development Block Grant application on Monday night.
The Carleton Project got the council’s unanimous OK to move forward with the 2024 Public Service grant application to the state that, if approved, would give several low to moderate income students a second chance at graduating from high school through scholarships.
Town manager Jeremy Smith said he supported the initiative prior to the council vote.
“I’ve heard nothing but great things about the Carleton Project,” he said. “It is a great asset and benefit to the community and I fully support this.”
The Carleton Project does not receive funding directly from some of the school districts in the area so the scholarships would provide the means for children who have not found success in traditional public school to take advantage of this self-paced education.
The town initially submitted a letter of intent to the 2024 Public Service Grant Program this spring for $100,000. But when the town was invited to apply for funds on behalf of the Carleton Project, fund administrators suggested reducing it to $50,000, said Nancy Ketch, the Houlton director of community development.
According to state guidelines, the block grant is designed to help low to moderate income individuals and families and if approved, the funds will help several Aroostook teens currently on a long waiting list attend the school.
The school’s plan is to continue to expand services which include alternative education offerings, mental health and family support and, support for restorative justice practices, according to the letter of intent.
“I am excited to have the town’s support for what we do,” said Lilly Haggerty, the executive director of the school. “The $50,000 is going to help a few kids who are currently not attending school.”
Earlier this fall, three Carleton Project high school students had a new opportunity to go to school and graduate after a Georgia man donated scholarships to pay their tuition at the private not for profit alternative school.
“It’s a new door that’s opened up. It’s amazing to actually go to a high school and actually get a diploma,” said Jacob Carmichael, 17, who dropped out of Houlton High School last year.
Littleton native James McBride, who now lives in Savannah, Georgia, donated $30,000 for three full tuition, one-year scholarships to the school.
McBride grew up on a Littleton potato farm and first went to school at the Littleton Consolidated School, a one room schoolhouse on his family’s property followed by the Richer Classical Institute in Houlton and then the University of Maine at Orono.
“We come back to Nickerson Lake every summer and I noticed the deterioration in the town of Houlton from my high school days,” McBride said. “I saw an opportunity to hopefully contribute to some of these young people and help them to become part of the future of Houlton.”
Ketch said that generally there is an award notification about two months after the application is filed but then they have to go into the project development phase with the state.
“Probably from start to finish it could be a six-month process based on prior CDBGs we have done,” she said. “Since we are submitting the application in December we would hear at the earliest in January.”