What a Modern School Looks Like

When a school unit learned it secured funding for its proposed new school, a YouTube video, What Do 21st Century Schools Look Like?, was created and shared to celebrate the possibility of that new school becoming a reality.

We, too, have the opportunity to transform the possibility of a 21st Century School into a reality for the learners of the Upper St. John Valley.

To watch the four-minute video, click here or on the image below.  Then, just imagine what the proposed comprehensive, integrated Valley Unified Regional Educational Facility could look like!

#valleyunified

Just Imagine!

At the Valley Unified Regional Service Center, we envision a range of open, flexible, and multi-use spaces when we think about the interior design of the proposed Valley Unified Regional Educational Facility.

To share what potential learning spaces and other areas in the proposed new school could look like, we will periodically post images of modern school spaces here for you to review. 

To view one set of images now, click here or on the image below.  Then, just imagine learning spaces and common areas resembling these in a new, modern school right here in the Upper St. John Valley!

#valleyunified

Watch this Video of Tours to Modern Schools

In November, 2018 St. John Valley school administrators, students, teachers, parents, and community members visited Hampden Academy and the United Technologies Center in Bangor.  In February, 2019, another group, which included members of the Valley Unified Regional Educational Facility Site Selection Committee, visited Sanford High School and Regional Technical Center.

The visits were conducted to examine modern schools and cutting edge educational programs, to introduce participants to the possibilities presented by the proposed Valley Unified Regional School, and to help shape an educational vision for the proposed new school.

Madawaska High School learners from WOWL Channel 16 were on hand to film the tours.  To access the 10-minute video they created, click here or on the image below.   Then, just imagine a school and programs like these right here in the Upper St. John Valley.

#valleyunified

Why a New School Matters

At the Valley Unified Regional Service Center, we are working to transform learning and learning environments to better prepare our students for the future.

For our older learners, that vision includes a new school.  To watch a short video that captures why the proposed Valley Unified Regional Educational Facility is a critical part of our strategic plan, click here or on the image below.  Please note the design firm that prepared this video is not affiliated with our proposed school project.  Nonetheless, their thoughts on schools for the future are compelling and aligned with our views and vision.

#valleyunified

Did You Know ...?

Did you know the Educate Maine report, Getting Ready for High-Paying Careers in Maine, 2018 identifies the following six employment sectors that are in demand now, and that are projected to be in demand in Maine for the next ten years?

• Computer Analysis
• Construction
• Engineering
• Health Care
• Hospitality
• Manufacturing

Did you know the Valley Unified Career and Technical Education (CTE) school, the St. John Valley Technology Center, currently has programs in place (Advanced Technologies, Construction Trades, Health Occupations, and Welding/Fabrication) that prepare our learners to enter careers in three of these high-demand employment sectors?

Did you know our preliminary vision for the proposed comprehensive, integrated Valley Unified Regional Educational Facility includes additional CTE programming in Hospitality & Tourism, including the Culinary Arts, and learning opportunities in both Engineering and Manufacturing, including:

• Drafting and Design
• Principles of Architecture and Construction
• Principles of Engineering and Technology
• Principles of Manufacturing

Did you know we already are designing some of these learning opportunities and plan to use the finished products as well as input from businesses and employers to help further inform the development of an educational vision for the proposed Valley Unified school?

To access the Educate Maine report, Getting Ready for High-Paying Careers in Maine, and to appreciate its importance to a vision for education in the Upper St. John Valley, click here or on the image below.

#valleyunified

Valley Unified Learners Gather for Inspiring Assembly

Take a few moments to read Jessica Potila's article about a recent assembly on the subject of relationships and resilience attended by the Valley Unified grades 7-12 learning community.  To access the article, click here or on the image below.

What if ...?

What if the proposed comprehensive, integrated Valley Unified Educational Facility included an Academy for Business and Financial Studies?

What if that school featured classroom and community-based learning opportunities that afforded early high school learners in 9th and 10th grade the chance to explore and investigate employment and careers in Business & Administration, Finance, Hospitality & Tourism, and Marketing?

What if those learners, while earning their high school diplomas, then had the opportunity to enroll in business-focused Career and Technical Education, Early College, and Articulated Credit programs of study as 11th and 12th graders?

What if, in the spring of 2024, Upper St. John Valley 8th graders and their parents could turn to a page in the Valley Unified Regional Learning Center Program of Studies and find information about these kinds of learning experiences?

Want to explore these possibilities?  Then click here or on the image below.  Just imagine!

#valleyunified

Third Quarterly Strategic Plan Progress Report

In 2017, MSAD #33, MSAD #27, and the Madawaska School Department adopted a Tri-District Strategic Plan which serves as a key focal point of our activities and efforts at collaboration, innovation, and personalization of learning across the Valley Unified Regional Service Center and in our schools.  

So intent are we to move our strategic plan forward, that we continually monitor our progress at implementing the strategic priorities included in the plan and report this progress to the citizens of the Upper St. John Valley on a quarterly basis.  

To review our third quarterly progress report for 2018-2019, click here or on the image below. 

#valleyunified

Just Imagine!

Pretend that it's April, 2024.  A mom, dad, and their 8th grader are reviewing the 2024-2025 Program of Studies from Valley Unified Regional Learning Center, a brand new comprehensive, integrated educational facility serving learners from the Madawaska School Department, MSAD #33, and MSAD #27.

They open to a section of the Program of Studies that describes the high school's Career Cluster Academies.  The 8th grader wants to become an engineer and is interested in the Academy of Industry and Infrastructure Studies.

She and her parents turn to the page of the Program of Studies that provides an overview of this academy so they can learn more.  To access what that girl and her parents might read five years from now, click here or on the image below.  Just imagine!

#valleyunified

Check Out This Sample SELECTIVES Learning Opportunity

The SELECTIVES Initiative is an important part of Valley Unified's ongoing efforts to expose all high school learners in the Upper St. John Valley to Career and Technical Education.

Personalized learning and increased student choice lie at the heart of the SELECTIVES Initiative which is funded through our FEDES III grant.

In the SELECTIVES Initiative, learning facilitators will develop and implement a host of elective Career and Post-Secondary Readiness blended learning opportunities identified as high interest in two surveys conducted with 9th-12th graders from the three high schools in the Valley Unified Regional Service Center.

In SELECTIVES Initiative blended learning courses, a significant portion of the learning content is available and delivered online; in-person, face-to-face interactions between learners and learning facilitators also occur on a regularly-scheduled basis.

To access and review the syllabus/pacing guide for a rigorous, relevant SELECTIVES learning opportunity - this one focused on the study of Law Enforcement/Public Safety, which is a high-need, high-growth occupational sector in Maine - click here or on the image below.

#valleyunified