Regional School Unit 1 has seen an uptick in multilingual students, prompting the district to partner to a local nonprofit program as it tackles the needs of the multilingual population.
Eight years ago, RSU 1 had one multilingual teacher, and over the past few years, the school system has added three education technicians to the department.
RSU 1 multilingual language teacher and coordinator Elizabeth Rattey said that each year, as the department grows, “we have been able to add more staff and resources to make our support systems more consistent and robust.” The biggest challenge right now is building infrastructure to help support a growing number of students, teachers and families.
RSU 1 closed last school year with over 20 multilingual students. This school year, about 40 multilingual students are attending RSU 1 schools. Portuguese, French, Lingala and Mandarin are among the most common languages spoken by these students.
Rattey contacted Midcoast Literacy in the spring of 2024, seeking assistance with three multilingual students. Midcoast Literacy contacted the families and scheduled English language learning services through the nonprofit.
According to Katie Clark, program director of Midcoast Literacy, 71 kids are being served this year, 35 of whom are English language learners or multilingual learners, as RSU 1 refers to them.
dan Burson, executive director of Midcoast Literacy, said that in the mid-2010s, about 80% of adult English language learners were native English-speaking individuals, with 20% being English language learners. By 2021, the percentages flipped, and Midcoast Literacy saw 90% first-time English language learners and 10% who are primarily English speakers.
“It has been a pretty significant change just in the last decade to a greater number of [first-time] English language learners who are part of our learning community,” Burson said.
Midcoast Literacy has 125 volunteer tutors who meet with English language learning kids and students with reading disabilities individually after school for one hour twice weekly throughout the year.
Burson said Midcoast Literacy has also taught multilingual adults, who can bring their children to the free English language tutoring programs. Midcoast Literacy also provides one-on-one tutoring for first-time adult English language learners, immigrants and families living in the United States.
Next year, volunteer training for new tutors will be held at Midcoast Literacy from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 27, 29 and 31.