School and Community Narrative
Sitting astride the Kennebec River in Kennebec County, Augusta is located 106 miles northeast of New Hampshire and 40 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean. It started as a trading post in 1628, and was named Cushnoc (The Fort). Seven years after obtaining statehood in 1820, Augusta was declared the capital of Maine and today still serves as the seat of state government.
The population of the city is 18,560, which almost doubles during daytime hours with the influx of a large workforce. Originally a community with numerous manufacturing jobs, the face of Augusta is changing. With the loss of Statler Tissue, Kirschner’s Meats, and SCI-Sanmina, along with the downsizing of Central Maine Power and a number of large banks (Key Bank and Bank of America), there has been a push to attract retailing jobs. The Marketplace Mall is projected to be the largest in the state while another new mall is in the planning stages. Despite the addition of a large number of retailing jobs, the State of Maine is still the largest employer by far, followed by Maine General Medical Center, Central Maine Power, Veterans Administration and the City of Augusta.
Augusta is a diverse community economically. According to the 2000 census, the median household income in Augusta was $29,921 and the family median income was $42,230. While the unemployment rate is a relatively low 5.1%, it appears that recently created service jobs in the Augusta community do not provide enough income to support a number of local families. The percentage of families with income levels below the poverty level is 11.4%. Thirty-five percent of school-age students at Cony qualify for either free or reduced lunch; system-wide it is 48.8%. There are 278 children involved in the Chapter One program representing 26% of the student elementary school population (including grade 6).
Cony High School is housed in a new thirty-million dollar building located on the East side of the Kennebec River. Connected to the structure is the Capital Area Technical Center that houses students from a number of sending schools. Located within two miles of the school are various community services: a fire department, a police department and a hospital. While Cony primarily serves the City of Augusta, students from eight outlying towns have the option of “tuitioning” into either Cony or one of the five other high schools in the area.
Students arrive at Cony from a number of schools. Locally, one middle school and two parochial elementary schools (K-8) supply the majority of students. Three percent of high school age students from Augusta attend non-public schools. Currently, 138 students attend Cony from outlying towns, primarily Chelsea, Windsor, Whitefield, Vassalboro and Somerville.
The district’s student population is 2505, spread among four elementary schools, one middle school, and Cony. Enrollment has been declining due to loss of manufacturing jobs and urban sprawl, but the completion of the new high school is expected to have a positive effect on increasing school enrollments. The district per pupil expenditure is $8,482 in comparison with the state’s average of $7,331. The cost to tuition students is $6,880. Fifty percent of the local property tax is allocated to the school system while 39% comes from the state’s coffers.
At Cony, 893 students (445 males, 448 females) are spread over grades 9-13. Despite the economic diversity of Augusta and its sending towns, the student body is relatively homogeneous in terms of race, culture and ethnicity. The Caucasian population stands at 96%, Asian 2% and with African Americans, Hispanics and American Indian populations totaling the remaining 2%. There has been relatively little change in recent years in the makeup of the student population. Anecdotally, however, teachers have noted that there is a significant increase in the need for emotional and academic support.
Last year, over forty percent of the student body failed at least one subject.
The student drop-out rate averages 5% over the last two school years. Daily student attendance rate averages 93% while the teacher attendance rate (including special education staff) averages 87%.
The high school has 67 teachers with an average student load of 84 and a class size of 15. It should be noted, however, that for most core subjects, the average class size is considerably larger (19). The school day follows a block schedule consisting of four instructional periods each lasting approximately 82 minutes (A/B Block with eight periods over two days). Instructional time per day is 328 minutes. In addition to the four periods a day, students meet with advisors each day for twenty minutes.
In the Class of 2005, fifty-nine percent of students attended a four-year college, 19 percent attended two year colleges, while 6% joined the military. The remainder of the class entered the work force.
In order to graduate, students must complete 24 credits and 20 hours of community service. Currently, courses are divided into varying levels: honors (or AP), college prep and a technical strand in science and English. Approximately 38% of the student population is enrolled in the upper level (AP/Honors) program while 62% are enrolled in the remaining classes, including special education (19%) and ESL (1.23%). Recently, Cony has initiated heterogeneous grouping for grades 9-10 with technical levels at grades 11-12. In an attempt to reach all students, Cony provides an array of classes and opportunities that allows students to personalize programs in order to address their strengths and interests.
A number of additional educational opportunities are available to Cony students. Adult Education classes, The University of Maine, and the Capital Area Technical Center are all located in Augusta. In nearby towns, classes are offered at Colby College, Central Maine Community College (Auburn Campus), Thomas College and Kennebec Valley Community College (Fairfield). Night classes allow students to supplement their daytime education; partnerships exist with local colleges to earn college credits while in high school. Currently, a number of Cony students take classes at the local branch of the University of Maine. Fifteen students are also enrolled in a Cony English IV class that allows them to receive credit from KVCC while still in high school. A number of local businesses and agencies that partner with Cony by participating in our mock interview, job shadowing, and internships programs.
Cony uses multiple measures to evaluate students’ achievement. Standardized tests include the PSAT, SAT, and AP exams, the MEA (Maine Educational Assessment) and PLAN. On the SAT, Cony students scored 516 (National 508) on the verbal and 523 (National 520) on the math. In the previous two years on the MEA’s (Maine Educational Assessment) Cony students performed at the state average in all areas: reading, writing, math, science/technology, social studies, visual/performing arts and health. Groups that impacted the scores were the special education population (approximately 20% of the total population of Cony) and the economically disadvantaged (35% qualify for free/reduced lunch). For the previous two years Cony students have performed above the state average on the PLAN exam. An important change in evaluating student progress is that starting in 2006-07, all juniors in the State of Maine will be required to take the SAT in lieu of the MEA. All sophomores in Maine now must take the PSAT’s.
Cony celebrates and recognizes the accomplishments of its students in a variety of ways. Two awards ceremonies are held each May to highlight student accomplishments in both academic and non-academic areas. Sports award nights that recognize athletic achievement are held at the conclusion of each season. Students of the Month are recognized and invited to a breakfast sponsored by the Rotary Club. Each quarter the honor roll list is published in the local paper and students who do well on the MEA’s are rewarded with privileges. Special recognition awards such as Envirothon competitions, Boys/Girls State participants and Top Ten graduating seniors are routinely advertised in the local Kennebec Journal newspaper.
After examining the strengths and needs at Cony, a number of school initiatives have been created. The most prominent initiatives are to align the curriculum with the Maine Learning Results and to create common assessments. The low literacy rate seen in recent freshmen classes has also been a concern. In response, starting in the 2006-07 school year, current eighth grade students will take a standardized literacy test (DRA) and thirty-two who score poorly will be required to participate in an English class taught by a literacy specialist and special education teacher. They will be required to take companion writing class as well. A drive to prepare every student for college has resulted in the establishment of heterogeneous classes in most subject areas. The math department is negotiating with KVCC to provide an opportunity for our two schools to share a math class. A relatively new advisor/advisee program has created a “board of directors” and is in the process of training teachers and providing them with a structured program. To address the high failure rate Cony has developed a learning center to provide special tutorial services beginning with the freshmen class.
Most importantly, with the prospect of moving into a new school in the 2006-07 school year, a number of initiatives will be implemented to offer the increased personalization of a smaller school while preserving the academic and extracurricular advantages of a larger school. These initiatives include:
1. Creating small learning communities (3 houses)
2. Providing common planning time for teaching teams.
3. Promoting interdisciplinary units and team teaching.
4. Strengthening the current advisor/advisee program
5. Designing a new schedule that will best fit at the new school
Cony High School’s Critical Strengths and Needs
Strengths
An experienced faculty
Relatively small class sizes (15 pupils per teacher average)
Strong and varied extracurricular opportunities
New facility State of the art technology
Modern performing arts center
Secluded, safe location
Wide variety of course offerings and electives
Partnership with local colleges
Needs
To address the high failure rate among students (40% failed at least one subject last year)
To help freshmen to adjust to high school and its challenges.
To create an attendance policy to address absenteeism and truancy
To provide funding to create new opportunities in alternative education
To create interdisciplinary units