FARMINGTON — Mt. Blue High School Principal Monique Poulin sat before the Regional School Unit 9 Board of Directors on Tuesday, Jan. 24, and gave an administrative report for MBHS music and theater programs as well as an update on the BARR program that was implemented in 2019.

In her report, she highlighted the Mt. Blue Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremony that was held on Saturday, Jan. 7. The first round of hall of fame inductees included contributors Paul [Bucky] Sproul and Robert Stevens Sr., Coaches Jim Bessey and Ray Caldwell, former athletes Mike Adams, Heather Ernest, Dustin Ireland, Ryan Leib and Sam Webber, and the 2000 Mt. Blue girls’ basketball team, which included Amber Alexander, Marget Blauvelt, Becky Corey, Kim Drosdik, Heather Ernest, Kristy Kiernan, Amanda James, Jolene Powers, Kiley McGuire, Brandy Sloan, Avery Stevens, Andrea Tuttle, Michel Vining and Rachael Yates.

Poulin’s report went on to showcase the progress of the theater and music programs, with The Mt. Blue Voices, an after-school chorus of 14 members, having a joint concert with the University of Maine Farmington Chorus in early December at Nordica Hall.

MBHS’s Jazz Band has also doubled in size from previously, according to the report. The ensemble has a full rhythm section as well as five horn players and has been playing a variety of styles of music, including swing, rock, and mambo.

The Franklin County Fiddlers, who performed at the Gubernatorial Inauguration on Wednesday, Jan. 4, held their “Home for the Holidays” concert on Thursday, Dec. 22, with performers from as far back as the class of 2005. The performers raised $1,140 for the Farmington Ecumenical Heating Fund.

In the theater program, The Mt. Blue Theatre Company began its season with a performance of the play The Curious Savage. According to the report, this was the eighth performance of the show, and it was a success.

While in rehearsals for their fall play, students were able to take part in a workshop and watch a Shakespeare production, performed by the Theater at Monmouth, and sponsored by Arts Farmington.

Up next for the department will be a one act play festival, called One and Done, which is to be directed by Finch Webster. This show will also be part of the Maine Drama Festival in early March. Coming this May, students from both MBHS and Mt. Blue Middle School will participate in the Broadway musical Beauty and the Beast.

“I was thrilled with all of it,” RSU 9 Chair Director Carol Coles stated. “I came away, just as always, kind of blown away about the opportunities there are for [MBHS] students in terms of theater and music and other pieces of the puzzle.”

Poulin concluded her report with a discussion of BARR [Building Assets, Reducing Risk]. The program, with the help of grant funding launched in 2019 with the intent of helping incoming freshman adapt and succeed within the high school framework, thus reducing the number of dropouts.

“It’s an evidence-based program and it’s about structure,” Poulin stated, “[It’s] like a positive based program so that there’s always something to celebrate about students. But it’s also very data driven, so as students take different strides in their academic progress or social progress, whatever it might be, they’re spoken about and then the case manager who’s the teacher is assigned to putting some pieces in place to help the students.”

According to the report, since implementing BARR, ninth graders have the lowest course failure rate at MBHS, including a reduction from 27% in 2021 to 11% in 2022, as well as seeing a significant increase in school attendance with a drop in chronic absenteeism in the first semester [missing 10% or more days of school] dropping 20% from 2022 to the first semester of 2023.

“Of course, every year is important, I don’t mean to minimize the other years, but a successful freshman year is an excellent indicator for high school completion,” Poulin commented.

“The BARR program, like principal Poulin mentioned, is a concentrated effort,” Superintendent Christian Elkington stated. “[I] just want to make it clear that the staff, they give extra time to support this work, [so] they do get small stipends, but they do give extra time and energy.”

The BARR program will continue, but the stipend that these teachers received for their contributions was derived from the grant funding received in 2019. According to Poulin, the grant money has officially run dry.

“So, we’ll be looking at some funding to help with these stipends, to continue them,” Elkington assured.