MILLINOCKET, Maine — The local school system’s international program has four students enrolled this year, and Superintendent Frank Boynton wants to attract more, he said Tuesday.
That’s why he is traveling to China over the Christmas break — to help recruit more students and visit the two Chinese high schools that teach the Stearns High School curricula, he said.
The trip to China will cost the Millinocket School Department about $3,500 and run from Dec. 17 to Dec. 24 or 25, he said. The visit is important, Boynton said, because the students being taught under the Stearns curricula licensed to the schools are approaching graduation age. Boynton must review the curricula to ensure that it is up to standard, he said.
Boynton’s trip “is extremely important to us,” school board Chairman Michael Jewers said Monday. “If we don’t show the same kind of interest in what’s going on over there that we have in the past, then they will stop the program immediately. We are kind of late sending someone over there. We want to salvage what we have over there.”
The two Chinese schools, Jewers said, pay Millinocket according to the number of students enrolled. Each school could potentially generate as much as $200,000 annually before expenses if they get enough students, Jewers said.
The overseas-based program brought about $125,000 into the regular school budget last year. The Chinese schools charge the students $1,000 per student per year. The number of students enrolled in the two Chinese schools varies year to year, Boynton said.
The international program “is a very important piece” of the school system, Boynton said.
“I am certainly dedicated to getting it to work and work well,” said Boynton, who became superintendent of town schools on July 1. “The other thing is that with the change of administration we want to assure them [officials at the Chinese schools] that we want to continue this program and make it a positive.”
Previous Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Smith and school board members described the international program as the school system’s best hope for surviving the economic downturn of the Katahdin region when they launched the program in 2011.
But student-recruitment difficulties, administrative challenges and difficulties balancing the books contributed to the program netting what town officials estimated was as little as $200 in one fiscal year. Recruitment of international students in Millinocket has never produced more than a dozen students in a year. This year the program has four — one student apiece from Brazil, China, France and Japan — paying $25,000 each in tuition and other costs, Boynton said.
Besides accepting international students at Stearns, the school offers one- to two-week summer and winter international-student programs that feature heavy concentrations in English and American culture.
Boynton said he projects that, after expenses, this year’s winter, summer, tuition and overseas programs will net $100,000 to $125,000 — a small but welcome part of the school system’s $6.2 million budget.
The expenses include paying families who host Chinese students in Millinocket and the students’ daily breakfasts and lunches, transportations costs and the fees the school pays an international agency to recruit students, Boynton said.
“There are a lot of expenses out there that take their toll on the bottom line,” Boynton said.
Jewers praised Boynton for maintaining good communication with the town council and town administration, and his taking the trip over the Christmas holiday is a gift to taxpayers, Jewers said.
“With the way our community is right now it [the international program] is saving taxpayers a lot of money,” Jewers said. “He has been a breath of fresh air. We had problems when he came in and he has made a sad situation into a G-rated movie. So that is doing pretty good.”
“Over the next year or two, I would like to see us up the number of students coming [to Millinocket],” Boynton said. “I could easily see 10 or 15 coming.”