Consortium receives grant for area schools

ORONO – The Penobscot River Educational Partnership, which includes the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, has received a $100,000 state grant to help area school districts operate more efficiently.

Owen Maurais, executive director of the partnership, said the Maine Municipal Bond Bank Credit Quality Improvement Grant will help partnering school districts – serving 9,000 children – streamline operations in business and accounting, food service, environmental health and safety, and an online substitute teacher call system.

“This is the largest grant that we have received,” said Maurais, a former Old Town schools superintendent. “In the past, we’ve received grants for $10,000 to $15,000. This grant is a reflection of where we are as an organization. Success breeds success.”

The grant will allow partnership schools to consolidate certain operations, starting in the 2007-2008 school year, Maurais said. The funding has allowed the partnership to hire UMaine adjunct business professor Paul Myer on a part-time basis to serve as project director. A student intern from the UMaine Masters in Business Administration Program also will be hired part time. They will study the member schools’ operations and recommend further efficiency measures.

Measures, Myer said, “are not going to be quick fixes, but things that will produce some long-term benefits for the schools and, in turn, the taxpayers.”

Partnership schools include Brewer, Bucksport, Alton, Bradley, Greenbush, Milford, Indian Island, Old Town, Orono, Orrington, Orland, Veazie, Hampden, Newburgh, Winterport, Holden, Eddington and Clifton, and the United Technologies Center in Bangor and Maine Child Development Services-Penobscot County.