Next fall, Kennebunk High School expects to welcome 10 international students, many of them from China, who will pay tuition and living expenses in line with many private schools.

It’s one of several public high schools in Maine that are developing sister-school relationships in China as a way to attract international students, along with the tuition dollars and cultural diversity that they promise to bring to Maine’s mostly white, English-speaking communities.

It’s a modest approach compared with the gung-ho effort that Stearns High School in Millinocket made last year, when an ambitious push to attract as many as 60 tuition students from China resulted in only three students enrolling last fall.

“We want to start small and do it well,” said Susan Cressey, principal of Kennebunk High School. Cressey is set to travel to China on Saturday with a delegation of educators from Maine, Vermont and South Dakota who are establishing sister-school relationships through Fox International Consulting Services in Portland. Representatives from Millinocket and Orono are going, too.

Pursuing educational exchanges

Suzanne Fox, president of the consulting firm, will be signing sister-school agreements on behalf of Falmouth and Wiscasset high schools, which are developing tuition programs for international students as well.

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Falmouth High initially plans to establish an annual, week-long student exchange program with Baiyi High School in Beijing, which is known for its robotics, environmental education and performing arts programs, Fox said.

Falmouth High currently doesn’t have room for international tuition students, said Superintendent Barbara Powers. However, its enrollment is expected to crest at 735 students in the 2012-13 school year. After that, the high school should be able to accept five tuition students each year.

“Global education is something I’m pushing the district to embrace,” Powers said.

Powers recently returned from a trip with 10 Falmouth High students who spent a week volunteering with the Safe Passage educational program for children living at the Guatemala City dump.

She also traveled to China in 2007 as part of a delegation sponsored by the Chinese government and the College Board to promote educational exchanges. And she attended a two-day conference at Harvard University last May on ways to promote global citizenship.

Fox’s consulting services will cost Falmouth $3,000 this year, Powers said. In the future, the cost of the program will be covered by students’ tuition.

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Meeting demand from China

Maine schools working with Fox plan to charge annual tuition rates ranging from $13,000 to $25,000 per foreign student — far less than the $30,000 to $35,000 charged by many private high schools, Fox said. Foreign students will be charged additional fees for room and board and other expenses, and they will be housed with local families.

Many Chinese students want to attend U.S. high schools because they provide an avenue to American colleges and universities and they are much smaller than Chinese high schools, Fox said. Many also want to polish their English skills and adapt to the American educational system before going to college here.

The draw is so strong that some Chinese high schools are collaborating with U.S. high schools so they can offer a year abroad as part of a standard academic program. Opportunities for U.S. students to attend Chinese high schools are limited because few American students can speak Chinese, Fox said.

In the wake of her experience helping Millinocket last year, Fox said she learned the importance of developing strong relationships with Chinese schools and the Chinese Ministry of Education. As China’s economy grows and its society changes, more Chinese students are seeking Western-style educations and looking beyond exclusive Chinese universities. Maine public high schools must take steps to avoid getting lost in the global rush of schools trying to answer that need, Fox said.

“Schools all over the world are competing for Chinese students,” she said. “(Millinocket’s experience) was a really bumpy ride and lots of lessons were learned. The approach of public schools needs to be completely different than private schools, which often rely on recruiting agencies. It has to be much more personal.”

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That’s why Millinocket Superintendent Ken Smith is heading back to China this week, and paying for the $5,000 trip himself. He’s not saying how many students he hopes to recruit at the Zibo Experimental School in Shandong Province, but he’s hoping for as many as possible. He’s armed with a video, brochures and plans to describe the English-language and environmental education programs that Stearns High School has developed to make the most of its rural location near Baxter State Park.

“I’m going to stay away from the numbers thing because people get caught up in that,” Smith said. “We’re going for more than we had this year. If we’re successful, the district will reimburse me for the cost of this trip.”

The Millinocket school district has already spent $36,000 on Fox’s consulting fees, Smith’s travel expenses and lawyer’s fees to establish its international student program. The three Chinese students who are attending Stearns High this year are paying $22,000 each, including $13,000 for tuition, $4,000 for room and board, and $5,000 for district expenses, Smith said.

Foreign students attending public schools qualify for one-year visas. With guidance from Millinocket school officials, Smith said, the three Chinese students have arranged extended visas to continue their educations in Maine. One will attend the University of Maine in Orono. The other two will continue at private high schools: Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield and John Bapst in Bangor.

Twinning with sister schools

Wiscasset High plans to enroll three to five students in the fall and has already received three applications, Fox said. Wiscasset’s primary sister-school agreement will be with Taishun Yucai High School in Shandong Province, but the district is forming additional relationships with other Chinese schools.

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Orono High School had nine international tuition students this year and is hoping to attract as many as 25 students in the fall, Fox said. She’s arranging a sister-school agreement with the Tianjin Foreign Language School near Beijing. Orono officials are pursuing relationships with other Chinese schools.

Kennebunk High School has already received several applications from Chinese students. Cressey, the principal, interviewed two of them via Skype last week. She conducted the interviews at 7:30 a.m., when it was 8:30 p.m. in China.

Kennebunk High is forming a sister-school agreement with Tangshan Foreign Language School in Hebei Province. Foreign students will pay $34,000 per year to attend Kennebunk High, including $20,000 for tuition and $14,000 for room, board and translation services, Cressey said.

Part of the money will be used to hire a full-time staff person to oversee the foreign students, Cressey said. The rest will help fund the school budget, though that’s not the only reason Kennebunk High is starting an international tuition program, she said.

Tangshan is a sprawling industrial city of more than 7 million people. Chinese students and parents have said they are attracted to Kennebunk’s clean, coastal location, small-town atmosphere and quality high school, which offers the International Baccalaureate diploma program.

“Their schools and class sizes are much, much larger,” Cressey said, noting that Kennebunk High has 717 students and classes typically have 18 to 20 students. Tangshan Foreign Language School has 3,500 students and its classes have as many as 60 students.

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Students and parents involved in developing Kennebunk’s international tuition program say it will build on the high school’s traditional student exchange program. Several Kennebunk students are expected to visit Tangshan in April 2013, Cressey said.

The tuition program also will enhance Kennebunk students’ understanding of world cultures and career opportunities far beyond Maine.

“It will be invaluable for students and the wider community,” said Olivia Hussey, a junior who helped start the high school’s International Club this year. She also attended a high school in Italy last spring through a traditional exchange program.

“In Kennebunk, we don’t always understand what’s going on outside Maine,” Hussey said. “One of the best things about going to school abroad was getting to know people who are different from me.”

Valerie Seeley, mother of Kennebunk High freshman Hannah Ingham, believes the international tuition program will expand students’ understanding of career options that exist in an increasingly global job market. She’s the senior merchandiser for L.L. Bean in Japan and Hong Kong.

“It truly is a global society now,” Seeley said. “This program will allow kids to experience global diversity without having to fly somewhere. It will broaden their horizons on a peer level.”

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:

kbouchard@pressherald.com

 


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