Plenty of communities rally round their schools in a time of need; SAD 59 towns – Madison, Athens, Starks, Brighton Plantation – can take pride that in rallying round they also embraced a new model for improving the way education is delivered in their region. They have a good story to tell about what creativity can do, and their plan could be copied elsewhere in Maine.

SAD 59 Superintendent Tony Krapf dates the change back to 1994, when Head Start moved into a temporary classroom on the grounds of Madison Elementary School. The cooperation between the two programs gave the district something of a pre-K program, with 3- and 4-year-olds in Head Start getting the basics they needed to be prepared for kindergarten. The bond grew stronger, however, in 1998 when the school administrative district learned it has risen on the state’s list for a new elementary school and the opportunity to make the pre-K program part of the school presented itself.

Presented, but didn’t pay for itself. The state doesn’t fund pre-K construction programs, so if the district wanted one, it would have to pay for it. Again, other communities have faced this challenge and met it: In the case of SAD 59, that meant paying an extra $250,000 for the classroom, offices, bathrooms and other facilities that make the pre-K program, now open to all, both able to stand alone and share the resources, such as the computer lab, of the elementary school.

As the community came together to support this idea, however, the idea grew. Starting this year, the district will track these young students, pre-K to graduation, to see what works and what does not, through a program called Project 2021. Full-day kindergarten is being considered and the district is looking for grants to fund an after-school program. Foreign-language instruction is coming for the districts youngest students.

What is especially noteworthy is this: In a time of tight budgets and high academic expectations, SAD 59 looked at what would best benefit its students then set out to build it, while being willing to test its performance with outcome measures. It has won a half dozen grants, including a $150,000 three-year Promising Futures grant, to improve facilities and teacher training. And the Kennebec Valley Community Action Program’s Head Start, under the direction of Patti Woolley, will commit this year $183,000 in staff, administrative supports, materials and supplies, playground equipment, parenting resources and training and technical assistance to support the Madison Preschool program and Project 2021, and it plans to offer increasing support annually. The program, according to Ms. Woolley, “allows the district to claim state reimbursement for each student being served, so additional revenue is realized by SAD 59.”

Project 2021 is a positive example of a school district putting its goals ahead of the way it normally does things and finding new solutions as a result. It offers an encouraging model for other schools in Maine and beyond.