DEXTER — The Tri-County Technical Center provides career and technical training to students from six high schools, enabling them to enter the workforce or pursue further education in their chosen field. This effort is carried out in part with the support of community partners who also provide financial contributions.
DEXTER — The Tri-County Technical Center provides career and technical training to students from six high schools, enabling them to enter the workforce or pursue further education in their chosen field. This effort is carried out in part with the support of community partners who also provide financial contributions.
During a SAD 46 School Board meeting on August 21, two donations totaling $110,000 were accepted by the directors. The Bill & Joan Alfond Family Foundation donated $85,000 to build a new building materials shop on the TCTC campus behind Dexter Regional High School. The Skowhegan Savings Bank Charitable Foundation donated $25,000 to purchase equipment for the welding and metal fabrication programs.
Superintendent Kevin Jordan said SAD 46 has been very fortunate to work with the Bill & Joan Alfond Family Foundation for several years. He said TCTC Director Brian Leavitt gave foundation officials a tour of the facilities.
“We want to build a steel building on an existing concrete slab behind the technical center,” Jordan said. The former construction space will be used for the new welding program.
Attendees of the Bill & Joan Alfond Family Foundation tour had a number of questions for Leavitt. Jordan said at the end, Justin Alfond said they would be happy to support TCTC.
“They have been and will continue to be a great partner for us,” the superintendent said.
Leavitt said construction costs would reach six figures. “We’re in the process of getting bids and getting started,” he said, with the goal of having a structure erected before the first snowfall.
If $20,000 is raised, the Bill & Joan Alfond Family Foundation would contribute an additional $35,000.
Leavitt said he applied for a $55,000 workforce development grant from Skowhegan Savings Bank to purchase a commercial band saw. A $25,000 contribution was made, and Leavitt said after consulting with other CTC directors, he was able to find another, less expensive model of saw for the welding technology program and the metal fabrication program.
“With the money we were able to buy the saw instead of just half,” he said.
Jordan said Skowhegan Savings Bank, which has a branch in Dexter, has always been willing to support the school system and student success.
Leavitt reported that a record 87 participants enrolled in the CTE Summer Camp, supported by the Bill & Joan Alfond Family Foundation. Programs included multimedia production, culinary arts, graphic design, health professions and activities with seniors.
In other business, the school board approved the formation of a cooperative high school golf team with Guilford’s neighboring Piscataquis Community High School.
Principal Steve Bell said PCHS has only one golfer who would be part of the Tiger team, but there could be another. He said the majority of the roster will return from a team that won its second straight Penobscot Valley Conference title, finished eighth in the Class C championship and qualified for the state championships for the third straight year.
Dexter has cooperative agreements with PCHS in football and with Corinth-based Central High School in field hockey, as these athletes travel to Dexter for practices and games and wear the orange and white of the Tigers as full members of the squad.
“This is just a continuation, and this time it happens to be about golf,” Bell said. “We’re seeing this across the state: Enrollment is going down, but kids are still playing.”
“A school with only a few kids who want to play still has a chance,” Jordan said.
Bell said over 140 athletes participate in fall high school sports.
He said that on Wednesday, August 28, freshmen and new students would come for a day before classes begin for everyone the next day. “It’s a long-standing tradition at Dexter, it gives the new students a day to themselves,” the principal said, and the program includes activities and team-building exercises.
The number of protected students is between 270 and 280, and Bell said he will have the exact number by the board meeting in September.
