Staff Writer
The state’s only magnet school signed an agreement Friday with the University of Maine at Presque Isle that allows students to complete at least one semester of college before graduating from high school.
Aroostook Republican photo/Debra Walsh
Walt Warner, executive director of the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, left, and UMPI President Don Zillman sign an agreement Friday that allows MSSM students to earn college credit from the Presque Isle university while they are still in high school. The agreement also guarantees automatic admission for MSSM students to UMPI provided they have a B-average or better.
The signing ceremony between the Maine School of Science and Mathematics and UMPI took place at the MSSM campus in Limestone. With the strokes of their pens, the two schools’ executives inked the agreement that also will assure students with a certain grade average to be automatically accepted at the Presque Isle campus.
“With the costs of a college education increasing on a daily basis, we’re particularly gratified to offer the opportunity to get a head start (on a college education),” said Walt Warner, MSSM’s executive director.
Warner also explained that MSSM students would benefit by the agreement since they will have access to the cultural and other activities at UMPI. The agreement will allow residential life employees to include Presque Isle campus happenings in the weekend plans for the high school students.
“The MOU (memorandum of understanding) also will strengthen the collegial relationships between colleagues,” Warner said.
It was through informal gatherings of the schools’ officials that led to the agreement, he said.
UMPI President Donald Zillman said that the extraordinary graduates from MSSM put the Presque Isle campus on the same level as Yale University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the high school students have also attended.
“This institution is a remarkable tribute to the state of Maine,” Zillman said.
Already there has been collaboration between the two schools. Some students are taking a geographic information system class from an UMPI instructor, Warner said.
Details regarding the logistics of how the students will attend the university classes have yet to be worked out, according to the two executives. Options, other than attending lectures, could be through the Internet or classes broadcast to the Limestone campus.
MSSM is a public residential magnet school charged and funded by the Maine State Legislature. Opened in 1995, the MSSM has over 100 students from 81 municipalities. The student population is composed primarily of high school juniors and seniors with a few sophomores.
The Presque Isle university is of one of seven autonomous campuses within the UM system and has about 1,500 students.
