CARIBOU, Maine — For the first time since the Caribou Community School opened to children last November, grown-ups got a tour of the facility after an official ribbon cutting on July 29.
The school cost $54 million and took 10 years to complete — the project was dogged by complications from land acquisition to budgeting. Administrators call it “the miracle.” Residents on tours started to get that impression too.
“[I’m] totally impressed, it’s marvelous,” Dave Buchanan said. He attended elementary and high school in Caribou as a youth. “We can relate because we went to all the old schools. We know about rooms, space, equipment availability. This is so, so much more … [I’m] just totally in awe.”
Superintendent Tim Doak (left) addresses the public at a ribbon cutting for the Caribou Community School. (Hannah Catlin | St. John Valley Times)
The building is a huge, contemporary structure, with bright white walls and colorful furniture and accents. The front hall, nicknamed Main Street, is flooded with light from huge windows at the front and back of the building. Branching off from the middle is the main office, a gym-meets-playground multipurpose room, the library — named here, the “Learning Commons,” and an innovation center.
Classrooms split off down other wings. On the ground floor, the halls are named after the old elementary and middle schools — Teague and Hilltop, for example.
From classrooms to common spaces, the school is brimming with technological updates to traditional school features. Every room has a large, touch-screen board at the front in place of a classic chalkboard or whiteboard, and the innovation center is stocked with both circle saws and 3D printers. Every student from kindergarten upward has a personal device to use at school.
The cafeteria in the Caribou Community School. At the far end of the room, tour-goers enjoy pie courtesy of the school. (Hannah Caltin | St. John Valley Times)
Science teacher Arik Jepson (right) addresses a tour group in a kindergarten classroom at the Caribou Community School. (Hannah Catlin | St. John Valley Times)
Having technology integrated, rather than discouraged, has helped draw kids into classes, science teacher and tour guide Arik Jepson said. Jepson recalled one student who designed and built a shelf that could hang off the side of his desk and hold his books using software available on his school laptop.
Innovation center director Maureen Connell said kids like working with the updated tech — she has spherical robots in her room that students can program to whir forward, backward or in circles.
The technology was something that blew many of the tour-goers away.
“[Television shows] “NCIS” and “Law & Order” have nothing on Caribou,” lifelong Caribou resident MaryLou Brown said.
These are things RSU 39 business manager Mark Bouchard heard all afternoon from tour-goers who had no idea what the inside of the building would look like.
“Every group I took through said, ‘We had no idea it was this beautiful,’” he said.
A kindergarten classroom at the Caribou Community School. (Hannah Catlin | St. John Valley Times)
Tour-goers listen to Media Specialist Stephanie Brisett talk about the technological programming at the Caribou Community School’s library — aka the “Learning Commons.” Along with traditional library programming, Brisett also teaches kids about social-media safety and AI. (Hannah Caltin | St. John Valley Times)
Administrators had been anticipating the official opening of the school to the public. They share a hope that the school will one day be a place for community activities beyond elementary education.
Several people in tour groups asked if the school would consider hosting adult education classes in its state-of-the-art facility — something that isn’t yet in the works, but teachers and staff expressed interest in pursuing in the future.
Parts of the campus aren’t yet complete. Though the building is solid, there’s ongoing landscaping work including the addition of an outdoor classroom. Other parts of the building aren’t yet in use — for example, a dentist’s chair in the nurse’s office that could be used for future screenings and check-ups.
Assistant principal Travis Barnes was glad to see the community finally inside the building in which they had invested so much time and money. Though the school was largely funded by the state, taxpayers voted to support an auxiliary gymnasium and large band room that were otherwise not in the budget.
Even though classes have been on-going for a year, many of the educators at the event said that it still felt new and surreal to be able to have a place like Caribou Community School to themselves.
“Just to be able to work in this environment in a brand new state-of-the-art school is a humbling moment,” Barnes said.
Science teacher Arik Jepson shows a tour group how the touch-screen board at the front of the classroom doubles as a computer and a digital whiteboard. (Hannah Catlin | St. John Valley Times)
Halls in the downstairs of the Caribou Community School are named after former Caribou elementary and middle schools. This one, Teague, is named after Teague Park Elementary, which stood where CCS does now. (Hannah Caltin | St. John Valley Times)
