Search Institute Visits BHS

    Four members of the Search Institute from Minneapolis, Minnesota visited Bucksport High School this week for two full days.  The objective for the visit was to see how BHS is doing overall as a school with a concentration on the freshman BARR program.  Search Institute gave BHS a four year federal grant and this is the second year of the grant.  Four high schools in the U.S. received this grant and the Search Institute conducts visits to all the grant schools twice a year.
   Verbal feedback from all four members is they are very impressed with our school's academic level, the positive energy in the school, the student centered hard working faculty/staff members and the great attitudes and manners of our students.  The academic data of our freshman for the first quarter showed steady improvement in student performance throughout the quarter.  The same Search Institute team will visit again on March 29th and 30th and Commissioner Bowen of the Maine Department of Education will also be visiting BHS at that time.
   The Search Institute visit team, superintendent Jim Boothby and principal Dan Clifford met with Commissioner Bowen in Augusta to give some background on the federal grant and to report out the progress of the freshman program at BHS.  The Commissioner seemed very impressed and had a lot of questions which leads to his visit in March and also next October when BHS hosts the other three grant schools for three days.