Western Maine Foothills Region

By Nick Waugh

The Western Foothills School District of Maine (Regional School Unit 10) contains 478 square miles—more than any school district east of the Mississippi River. It came to exist in 2008 as a result of a state-wide consolidation initiative, and from its birth RSU 10’s motto has been “Becoming One”. The Western Foothills History Project, by exploring both the historical and contemporary connections among the towns of the district, is an effort to render that motto as more than wishful thinking.

Our team consists of a wide variety of stakeholders from the twelve towns that comprise the district: Buckfield, Byron, Canton, Carthage, Dixfield, Hanover, Hartford, Mexico, Peru, Roxbury, Rumford, and Sumner. The RSU was formed by the consolidation of Maine School Administrative Districts 21, 39, and 43, which have become, respectively, the Dirigo, Nezinscot, and Mountain Valley Regions of the RSU. The Androscoggin River Valley towns of MSAD’s 21 and 43 have traditionally close ties, and that part of the merger made a natural fit. But, due to the vicissitudes of consolidation, the three towns of MSAD 39, located far to the south and literally on the other side of the mountains, were thrust together with those of the relatively homogeneous River Valley.

The towns of RSU 10 range in size from Byron (145) to Rumford (4,218), but these two adjacent communities have much more in common than do Rumford and Buckfield (2,009), the largest towns in the Nezinscot Region. In the River Valley towns, the NewPage paper mill dominates the economy. While the mill’s payroll is less than half of what it was 40 years ago, it remains by far the area’s largest employer, and the wealth it generates radiates concentrically throughout the River Valley, supporting merchants, loggers, truckers, property taxes, etc. Rumford itself is the commercial hub of the area, offering supermarkets, restaurants, and a wide variety of merchants.

By contrast, citizens of the Nezinscot region—Buckfield, Hartford, Sumner—look upon Auburn/Lewiston or South Paris/Norway as their commercial centers. Many inhabitants of the region work in those bigger cities and all must travel to one of them for shopping and entertainment. The former MSAD 39 (now the Nezinscot Region) has traditionally been allied with the Oxford Hills school district, and continues to send both its vocational and Adult Ed students to Oxford Hills. The proximity of these three towns to the larger population centers engenders a number of other diversities, not least of which is a significantly higher median household income.

From the beginning, the RSU has endeavored to forge cohesion among its far-flung citizenry. The district has made great strides in this regard, but these efforts have been hampered both by geography and the disparate cultural foci of its constituent communities. From this arises the primary aim of our Western Foothills History Project: promoting familiarity and collegiality among the students, educators, and citizens of the twelve towns. Our vision is to create a Western Foothills homepage from which to link the history projects of all the participating historical societies. Again, our team consists of a wide variety of stakeholders: six of the ten historical societies; all three RSU 10 high schools; two middle schools; Rumford Elementary School; Holy Savior School parochial school; the libraries of Buckfield, Dixfield, and Rumford; Dr. Theresa Overall from the University of Maine Farmington; Gloria Jenkins, RSU 10 Assistant Superintendent/Curriculum Director, and lastly, Dr. Tom Ward, RSU 10 Superintendent.

Besides promoting familiarity, the project can also serve to clarify and preserve the individual identities of the towns. A major objection to the consolidation of school districts, particularly when it comes to combining high schools, is that the constituents lose their traditional identities. What is pride of community if not pride of its history? For instance, if a school with a proud legacy of athletic achievement merges with another, how better to preserve the history of both than with a project of this nature?

An additional aim of the project is to provide a curricular framework for the dissemination of Customized Learning and the TPCK/SAMR approach to pedagogy. A quick Google search will call forth reams of material on these acronyms—suffice it to say we desire to engage students, staff, and community in real-life, technology-assisted, product-based (project-based) learning. The inclusion on our team of curriculum experts Dr. Overall and Dr. Jenkins will ensure our adherence to this ideal. Indeed, the RSU 10 team is liberally salted with district teachers who, under Dr. Overall’s tutelage, have acquired both their master’s degrees and a close familiarity with TPCK. We also believe this project has the potential to be a powerful service learning project and plan to add the necessary components to make service learning a part of what the students, teachers, historical societies, and libraries accomplish together.

Finally, we have met with representatives from nine of the ten historical societies, and the consensus around the table has been that, as society members age, society membership wanes. A couple of the societies are down to two or three members, and we fear that, if the torch is not passed, some of the smaller ones will simply fade away. Our hope is that by collaborating with the societies and immersing themselves in local history, students will learn to love history, join the depleted ranks of the societies, and breathe new life into them.