Veteran, 66, receives Old Town H.S. diploma

OLD TOWN – Fifty years after he quit Old Town High School to join the Air Force, Richard Engstrom of Alton returned Tuesday to receive his high school diploma.

School board Chairman James Dill handed Engstrom, 66, the document at the start of a regular meeting at the Leonard Middle School. The meeting later focused on laptop computers for seventh-graders, successful literacy programs and preparations for the Aug. 28 first day of school.

Before the new business, the Old Town School Board took care of an older, perhaps more pressing matter. Flanked by his wife, Mary Ann, son Daniel, other family members and leaders of Post 9, Amvets of Old Town, Engstrom expressed hope that other veterans would come forward to get their diplomas. A state law passed in 2001 allows military veterans to receive their high school diplomas if they missed getting them due to their service.

Engstrom is a retired truck driver and member of the “million-mile club,” he said, meaning he has driven more than 1 million miles without an accident. He served in the Air Force 10 years, seeing military action during the U.S. occupation of Germany after World War II, and later in the Korean Conflict. He was injured in a plane crash in England. The father of six children, five of whom are living, Engstrom obtained a GED diploma while in the service but said he never forgot leaving high school in his sophomore year. His parents had signed a permission form for him to join the Air Force, “and I was out of here, but now I’m back,” he said.

“It feels good,” Engstrom said, looking at the green and white diploma as his proud family looked on.

In other business, Leonard Middle School Principal John Keane and Matt Cyr, newly appointed mathematics/science teacher at the school, demonstrated certain programs on the new Apple laptop computers that have arrived for seventh-grade pupils. The school has received 129 laptops and 21 for teachers. It needs six more, and, most likely will receive those from surplus, according to notice from the Department of Education. Keane said a committee delving into laptop issues has yet to decide whether pupils will be allowed to take the computers home. The goal is to have the computers follow the seventh-graders when they enter the eighth grade and, ideally, high school, according to Keane. New computers will be supplied to subsequent seventh-grade classes for at least four years.

The six school board members attending the late summer meeting accepted Superintendent Owen Maurais’ recommendation and passed a policy dealing with bomb threats. The policy was devised by the Department of Education and specifies the consequences for bomb-threat perpetrators, including suspension or expulsion. The policy states instructional time lost because of bomb scares will be made up as determined by the superintendent and the School Board.

Old Town High School Principal Terry Kenniston spoke on preparations for an accreditation process the high school will go through this fall.

The school board accepted several resignations and hired 24 teachers, education technicians, coaches and leaders of the new JROTC program at Old Town High School.

Curriculum Coordinator Judy Pusey updated board members on new reporting requirements of the No Child Left Behind project, a major federal legislative act focusing on school reform. The program gave $366,826 to Old Town last year but requires extensive assessment of most students. It probably will mean the school system will have to establish a new data management system. Some concerns Pusey expressed are linked to the fact teachers in the program may need to prove they are highly qualified by taking even more tests than those required for certification, and programs that cannot prove effectiveness through “scientific research” will be abandoned, even if they are effective on a local level.