BANGOR, Maine — Children living in poverty often are hungry, which hurts their ability to do well in school. That does not seem to be happening in Bangor, where the academic success of local students despite a high poverty rate has drawn the attention of a legislative task force looking for ways to eliminate hunger among students in Maine.
Though one out of every two children in Bangor’s public schools qualifies for free or reduced lunch, meaning about half of students live at or below the federal poverty level, they perform as well as or better than the general student body on a number of metrics the state uses to track academic achievement.
Statewide, 45 percent of students qualify for the food assistance program.
The dropout and graduation rates in Bangor schools are equal to the state averages, and students perform better on standardized tests, according to data from Maine’s Department of Education.
In order to showcase and learn from the district’s leaders, lawmakers, Department of Education officials and professionals from the health and education fields spent Tuesday at Bangor High School and ate lunch in the cafeteria alongside the teenagers.
“They shouldn’t be achieving this level of success at all,” said Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland, who sponsored the law to create the task force. After hearing presentations from Bangor School Department officials, he attributed the district’s impressive statistics to “an approach where everyone is involved in every child’s success.”
Bangor school officials made it clear that there is no silver bullet that makes it possible for them to effectively educate students for whom hunger is an issue. Each presenter highlighted something different that they think the district does well.
They touted a number of local partnerships that extend the support system for students well beyond the school day and classroom walls, including the Good Shepherd Food Bank, which gives qualifying students a backpack full of food; the University of Maine, where students participate in summer research projects in the STEM fields; and a free dental program, among others.
Superintendent Betsy Webb said a “no excuses” attitude and culture among the teachers and students helps explain Bangor’s numbers.
“It all goes back to that focus, that organization and that alignment, in which it doesn’t really matter what the child’s struggle is,” she said. By alignment, she means that teachers in different schools coordinate so students can move smoothly from one school to another if they move or graduate.
“We are extremely careful about not chasing every new fad,” she said, adding that “we make sure we meet the intent of the law, but we stay true to our course.”
Webb emphasized that a one-size-fits-all approach to addressing student hunger would not work in Maine and that schools need to be able to have the power to respond to their individual students.
The Bangor School Department has been critical of the implementation of the state’s proficiency-based diploma law, which requires that students graduate having met a set of statewide standards, shifting schools’ emphasis away from grades and credit hours.
“We are worried about kids being asked to make minimum standards, “ Bangor High School Principal Paul Butler told the lawmakers on Tuesday. “We reject the notion that kids feel shackled and chained by the high school experience.”
In December, the task force will present a three- to five-year plan to address the issue of student hunger in Maine. One of the group’s major goals is to figure out how to better connect Maine students with federal money that is available for food.
Rep. Victoria Kornfield, who worked as an English teacher at Bangor High School for 30 years, also is on the task force. It was her idea to visit the school, Alfond said.
According to Kristen Miale, president of the Good Shepherd Food Bank, who is serving on the task force, Maine could be accessing $30 million more in federal funds for food. Maine receives more than $45 million for child nutrition programs, accord to the Department of Educations website. Miale said the issues are getting schools to provide the meals, getting families to fill out the necessary forms and getting students to go get the meals.
When asked whether all Bangor students who qualify for free and reduced lunch are getting that benefit, food services director Noelle Scott said, “I’d like to think so.”
