Magnet school to hold open house> 300 expected to tour proposed home of Main science, math institute

LIMESTONE — Close to 300 students, parents and friends have signed up for an open house this weekend at the proposed home of the Maine School of Science and Mathematics.

The state’s first residential school for gifted math and science scholars is slated to open in September — state funding permitting — in the back half of Limestone Community School. Plans call for up to 150 students to live and learn at the school during the first year. The so-called magnet school is then expected to attract its full capacity of 300 students by fall 1996.

On Friday and Saturday, prospective MSSM students and their parents will have an opportunity to visit the community, meet MSSM officials, and hear guest speakers from similar schools in Louisiana and Indiana.

Prospective students will also be able to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test and undergo the personal interview portion of the magnet school application process while in town.

The open house begins Friday evening with registration, a soup and sandwich bar and an informal program on the MSSM from 6 to 9 p.m. Other highlights are a one-act play in the LCS auditorium at 8 p.m., followed by movies in the auditorium and a family splash party in the school’s indoor pool from 8:30 to 10 p.m.

After breakfast and registration from 8 to 10 a.m. Saturday, MSSM officials will discuss how the proposed school will operate. Officials from similar schools will make presentations from 10 to 11:30 a.m.

Open house guest speakers will be Dottie DeSelle, external affairs coordinator for the Louisiana School for Math, Science and The Arts; and Patrick Farrell, instructor of advanced-placement mathematics at the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities. Both will be available to answer visitors’ questions throughout the two-day event.

DeSelle has been on the Louisiana school’s staff for seven years. In its 13th year of operation, that school provides advanced-placement courses in math, science and the humanities. It is the only state residential school in the country that has creative performing arts as an integral part of its program.

DeSelle is active in a variety of educational organizations at the international, national and regional levels and has conducted many presentations, among them “Project RATE: Recruiting for the Advancement of Teacher Education” at the annual conferences of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Educators, and the National Council of States on Inservice Education.

Farrell has taught advanced-placement calculus for more than 10 years and has been a mathematics instructor, teaching calculus and elementary analysis at the Indiana school for four years. He also teaches advanced-placement calculus on television.

He is one of the more than 300 people who applied for 12 anticipated openings at MSSM. Farrell has written several articles on mathematics for national and state publications, and was appointed reader for Grading of Advanced Calculus Exams in 1994.

Beginning at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, there will be tours of the magnet school complex, including lab and computer facilities, the media center, the language arts facility, the auditorium, band room and gymnasium. From noon to 1:30 p.m., visitors will have lunch with residents of the community.

An informal session about the MSSM Host Family Project will begin at 1:30 p.m. The host family program, deemed an important element of similar schools in other states, is aimed at giving magnet school students breaks from dormitory life and opportunities to interact with adults and youngsters away from the school setting.

“The academic program at the MSSM will be intense and virtually all students who attend will be away from their family and friends support network for the first time,” said Superintendent James Morse.

Sample offerings under the program include home-cooked meals, church functions, shopping, snowmobiling and skating.

The goals of the host family project are two fold: to provide each scholar an opportunity to have the support and friendship of a local family, and to build understanding and support among the magnet school and its students, the town of Limestone and the surrounding Aroostook County communities.

Among other activities offered magnet school visitors on Saturday afternoon will be swimming and movies.

The SAT may be taken at 8 a.m. or 1 p.m. Friday, or at 8 a.m. Sunday. Appointments for personal interviews are available Saturday afternoon. As of last week, almost 40 students had signed up for testing, interviews or both.

For parents and students unable to attend this weekend’s event, a second open house will be held on Saturday, March 25.