BANGOR, Maine — The three candidates seeking two seats on the Bangor School Committee agreed in a public forum this week that more must be done to reach the 13 percent of students who don’t graduate.
According to the Maine Department of Education, the school system’s four-year graduation rate is 87 percent, slightly higher than the statewide average of 86.5 percent.
Asked what they saw as the biggest challenge facing the school system, all three candidates discussed options for reaching the 13 percent of students who don’t graduate.
For candidate Jennifer DeGroff, that means reinstating middle school shop and home economics classes to teach life skills that would help students be more productive members of society.
While she said the school system has done and should continue doing an excellent job preparing students for college, she also said the school system is not reaching the 13 percent who don’t graduate.
“If we don’t start addressing how those kids end up being productive members of adult society, we’re going to continue to have people who struggle with employment issues,” she said.
DeGroff, 42, is a community advocate and volunteer who works with several local nonprofits, including Habitat for Humanity. She is a 1991 graduate of Bangor High School.
Candidate Brian Doore had a different plan that called for identifying at-risk students and doing more to ensure they finish high school.
“I see education as an equalizing force in our society,” he said.
“We know that for one of those [students] that doesn’t finish that it’s a loss of $127,000 over their lifetimes in taxes paid to society, and it’s a reduction of 50 percent in their own income,” Doore said.
Doore, 46, is director of assessment for the University of Maine. He has worked previously teaching special education and social studies and has served as an advisor for state and federal K-12 education policy.
Candidate David Sturm called for the expansion of existing Bangor city schools programs such as alternative education to keep students from dropping out.
The alternative education program provides special classes for at-risk students with the goal of returning them to Bangor High School within two years.
“We really need to look and see if we can expand a program that we already have to reach some of that 13 percent,” he said.
Sturm, 50, is a physicist by training and hold degrees in business management, computer science and physics. He teaches at the University of Maine and Beal College.
In response to a question about increasing the school budget, DeGroff said it is reasonable to expect inflationary cost increases and proposed looking for grants to pay for solar and wind power upgrades to decrease utility expenses.
Doore said the school system’s budget cannot remain flat forever and called for early communication between the school committee and the City Council to better address the school system’s real needs.
Sturm proposed looking to students and teachers for cost saving ideas, saying ideas that come from within often are the least expensive solutions to challenges facing the school system.
Follow Evan Belanger on Twitter at @evanbelanger.