LINCOLN, Maine — Chris Ferguson has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. His mother has spent much of the eighth-grader’s life trying to find the best ways for him to channel the impulsiveness, inattention and occasional anger that comes with that illness.
Then the Kingman resident, a tuition student, joined the Mattanawcook Junior High School wrestling team. Everything started to change, his mother, Theresa Jacobs, told the RSU 67 board of directors during its meeting at Mattanawcook Academy on Wednesday.
Ferguson won five medals in competitions. He became more focused and aware of his own abilities. His studies and self-esteem improved and he began to enjoy life more, Jacobs said.
“I have been wrestling for five years and I love it,” Ferguson told the board Wednesday. “We don’t want to lose wrestling next year. We want to continue it.”
“He has brought home trophies and learned when to show aggression and when not to,” Jacobs said.
Ferguson and Jacobs were among several wrestling, basketball and ski team members and parents among the 70 people attending. They urged the board to reconsider cutting several junior high or high school sports or assistant coaches from the proposed $12.28 million school budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year.
Board members agreed. In approving the budget with a 9-1-2 vote after 21/2 hours of deliberation, the board restored the sports programs and cut a $91,000 annual expenditure for a four-year program aimed at placing 300 Apple laptop computers at the high school for take-home usage.
“It seems to me that we could table this [computer program] this year so we could research it and then decide next year whether we want to pursue it,” board member Debra Tardy of Lincoln said.
Board member John Trask questioned if the program was necessary, given that surveys showed that of the academy’s 400 students, 96 percent have at-home computers — 90 percent with Internet — and 79 percent said their computer access is adequate. The academy has 150 classroom computers.
A computer program supporter, Superintendent Michael Marcinkus said cutting the program, which required a $62,000 allocation from the regional school unit, would leave a disconnect with Mattanawcook Junior High School, which has an excellent at-home laptop service.
Junior high teachers and pupils strongly urged the program’s continuance at the academy, he said.
The program “is an opportunity for our students to excel in a way that they would not excel without computers,” board member Jacqueline Thurlow said. “I fear that without this program, they would regress in an age where technology is very important.”
“It has transformed and expanded the way everything is taught,” said board Chairwoman Judith Junkins of Lincoln, who was undecided about supporting the program. “It is the 21st century, and I would like to see that happen at the high school.”
Board members agreed 12-2 in a straw vote to cut the program after Trask presented a New York Times article that showed the program had mixed results nationally. Some educators complained that laptops distracted classroom teaching and broke down too often.
Marcinkus and the board were also unsure how much the program would cost RSU 67 in its last two years.
Restoring the ski, freshman basketball and wrestling teams at the high school cost about $10,500, while restoring cross country, track, wrestling and field hockey assistant coaches cost $5,280. The budget represents an increase of about four-tenths of a single percentage point over this year’s budget, Marcinkus said.