Many Flags could fill midcoast’s higher education gap

It’s an idea that sounds like an amusement park.

But it’s a serious proposal that some argue is a vital next step for Rockland.

Many Flags/One Campus is gaining attention as the higher education gap in the midcoast moves to the forefront of community talk.

During a panel talk for the filming of Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s TV series “Hometown Economies,” Rockland panelists cited higher education as the big missing piece in the city’s economy.

“It’s an important piece,” City Manager Tom Hall said. It’s essential for “training our work force to meet the needs of the future.”

Many Flags is designed to bring together high schools, a vocational school, a boat building school and a four-year college and community college onto one campus. The logic is twofold: It could plug the higher education hole while satisfying some simmering secondary education issues in the midcoast.

Earlier this year, Alan Hinsey of Eastern Maine Development Corp. pitched the Many Flags idea, and educators began to listen. The concept is about connecting secondary education with higher education opportunities. Not only could facilities, equipment, resources and administrative costs be shared, but students could take college level courses while attending high school.

SAD 5, SAD 50 and Midcoast School of Technology have bought into the proposal by recently contributing approximately $7,500 each toward further research and development, Hinsey said this week. The two school districts have been considering various consolidation options.

SAD 5 and SAD 50 are facing the need to either renovate or replace aged high school buildings. Each district is also apt to encounter difficulty in obtaining state construction funding because of declining enrollments.

At the same time, Midcoast School of Technology has been looking to expand.

University College at Thomaston and Kennebec Valley Community College are potential partners in the Many Flags campus, but both colleges are in pending negotiations to occupy the fourth floor of the Breakwater Marketplace on Camden Street (Route 1) in Rockland.

Recently, Deborah Meehan, director of the Thomaston college, said the move may be just a temporary solution to its space needs and its interest in Many Flags remains strong.

For two months, six Many Flags task teams have been looking at various planning aspects for high school and vocational technology, a higher education center, a marine systems center, site and location, finance and development, and publicity and community relations, Hinsey said.

No specific parcels are under the microscope, he said, but the site and location criteria established include a minimum 100-acre site.

“That narrows [the search] down quite a bit,” he said.

In a few weeks, a new Web site, www.manyflags.org, will be launched, he said, and videos about the Many Flags concept and educational issues in general will be broadcast on public access television.

In December, team information will be compiled into a report that will be released during a public forum.

SAD 5 board member Julie Raye said she supports the Many Flags proposal because she believes higher education opportunities should be “right here.”

“Then we need good-paying jobs to employ that educated work force,” she said.