Georges Valley High School is located in Thomaston, Maine in the Mid-Coast region serving students from Thomaston, St. George, and Cushing, constituting MSAD #50.

The year-round population of the three towns is 7,650. The median income of the three towns is $38,371.00. This is a diverse community with all ranges of income, ages and occupations. Major businesses and industries include fishing and lobstering, tourism, financial services, health care and many other small businesses serving these three communities. The unemployment rate ranges from 1-3% throughout the three towns. The poverty level is between 3-8%, depending on the town. Although diverse in many ways, the three towns are English speaking with very little racial or ethnic representation.

The district’s student population is 1,058 with a small “bubble” coming in three years. St. George has a K-8 school with 247 students. Cushing is the home of the Cushing Community School with a student enrollment of 54. Thomaston has Lura Libby School, a K-4 school with 170 students and Thomaston Grammar School, 5-8, with 225 students. Georges Valley High School, in Thomaston, has a student population of 357. Our per pupil expenditures are $8,260.00. 77% of local property taxes are allocated to the local school district for education.

Discipline and behavior issues remain fairly constant with in-school suspensions at 21 and 22 in the past two years and out-of-school suspensions at 56 and 54 over the past two years. Grade level retention has been constant at 4%. 96% of our seniors graduated in the past two years.

Reform and initiatives are an ongoing part of Georges Valley High School. The Maine Learning Results, our Mission Statement and Expectations for Student Learning, and Promising Futures are currently driving the improvement plan within the school. Some of these ideas include an expanded advisory program, student expectations and other graduation requirements, interdisciplinary course offerings, common planning time for staff members and directed study time for students. Georges Valley High School is in the process of reforming and updating local assessment. Currently the school uses the IOWA test for freshmen and seniors and the Maine Educational Assessment for juniors.

The average daily student attendance rate at Georges Valley High School was 94.5% for the past year, slightly higher than the previous year. Teacher daily attendance is at 94% for last year, again slightly higher than the previous year. Our student drop-out rate has declined from about 4% two years ago to just above 1% last year.

The school offers 10 sports and 12 other school activities to our students, with about one third of the students playing on a team and more than one half of the students participating in band, chorus and/or dramatic productions.

The teacher: student ratio is 1:9 with a high at 1:24. The school offers many independent study opportunities as well. There are 32 full-time teachers, 5 part-time teachers, 2 building administrators, and 13 support staff. The academic day consists of 369 minutes with a 4X4 block day of 75 minutes.

University College campus is in Thomaston. Mid-Coast School of Technology is just 5 miles away in Rockland with approximately 30 students per year attending.

Local business and industry support Georges Valley High School in many ways through individual employment opportunities, cooperative education and job shadowing through the senior transition program. The community supports students through the Kiwanis Key Club, Georges River Educational Foundation, and Trekkers. Service learning opportunities are encouraged through several venues: sophomore social students, senior transition and student volunteers in the lower grades. Community Service will be a component of the expanded advisory program.

Special education services are provided for 17% of students. There are no students in bilingual or English as a second language courses. 17% of students are enrolled in accelerated courses. Only 8% of students take standard level courses.
Although 62% of the 2002 graduating class planned on going to post-secondary education, in follow-up study one year later, only 51% actually attended a post-secondary institution.

Our recent school initiatives include progress on the Maine Learning Results and local assessment, expanding the advisory program, student expectations, redesigning the school day, and other possible reforms with assistance through the Gates Grant.

Many new and ongoing programs are the direct result of grant writing by staff and administrators. Many of them come from the MBNA Education Foundation, an international credit card bank with local offices.

All of teaching staff members have a bachelor’s degree, with 42% also having a master’s degree. 94% of the staff has a major in their teaching area. Conditional Certificates are held by 18% of the staff.