The New School

Kennebunk

Five Years of Experience! The New School was designed as a potential public charter school five years ago.

 We now have 35 students, and will likely never be larger than 50 students.  We provide educational options for 16 communities in Southern Maine.

Our small size and individual attention has made ALL the difference for a large percentage of our students.   

Students who have needed special education in larger high schools have not needed such services in our smaller environment, a very real savings of money and personnel. 

• 10% of the students would have quit high school, discouraged, disenfranchised, or bored. 
• 20% were not achieving at average levels, and are now achieving at average or above average levels. 
• 98% of our students have gone on to higher education and a significant number of those students did not imagine higher education in their future.

"This is a school where a student's initiative can take them a long way. The New School taught me that my education requires my involvement. Students and parents are very involved in school government. Classes are small and personalized: groups of students can even initiate classes for topics they want to study. Graduation from the New School was the best experience I've ever had in school. I presented my portfolio to a committee of my parents, friends, and teachers, demonstrating that I had met (and exceeded) standards set by the State of Maine for high school graduates. I graduated in a class of six people, with a clear sense of who I am and what I had accomplished in high school."

 Rebecca White, September 2004

 At the New School our freshmen and sophomores will graduate having met all the Maine Learning Results content standards, not just Math and English.  What we have learned through setting up systems to accomplish this could be of value to many schools.