HARPSWELL

A state review says improvements are needed at Harpswell Coastal Academy, even as it notes early success at one of Maine’s newest charter schools.

The school — which opened this fall with 57 students enrolled in grades 6 and 9 to provide a “place-based curriculum” — has until March 1, 2014, to submit a new plan as to how it will evaluate student progress.

The school’s initial plan to utilize NECAP testing cannot work, as that test is administered to fifth- and eighth-graders. Harpswell Coastal Academy currently enrolls only sixth- and ninth-graders.

The Maine Charter School Commission visited the school, which opened in September in the former West Harpswell School on Ash Point Road, on Nov. 8.

Bob Kautz, executive director of the commission, said the panel’s visit was 90 days from the school’s September opening and part of the commission’s regular review for monitoring new charter schools.

Kautz said the review team was “not expecting the grandest things possible,” as the school is just getting established. However, he said, the panel did want to see that the school is getting off on the right foot.

The review team met with more than 20 parents, as well as volunteers, board mem- bers, administration and all teachers; and also had lunch with students. Panelists observed classes in progress, watched students out on the marsh doing field work and looked over documents that ranged from attendance to budgets.

“So we got a good feel for it,” Kautz said. “And given they had really just moved into the building in August.”

“To get a whole new organization in operation,” including attracting the student enrollment needed and getting buses running, the school “did a remarkably good job getting organized and fixing anything they saw along the way.”

Joe Grady, president of the board for Harpswell Coastal Academy, said “I think the report was what we expected based on our meeting,” and said there were no surprises.

Obviously, he said the school doesn’t have a lot of data yet as it is just getting started, so at this stage they look at what impressions people have who come visit and said the charter school commission had a really great impression from the tenor at the school and what is going on there, and the feelings of students and “we were thrilled by that.”

The commission also gave the school good feedback as a young organization and “All in all it was a great visit,” Grady said.

In the five-page report, parents expressed concerns about communication between them and the school. The report states it is “imperative” that this improved.

Parents also requested more enrichment classes, such as foreign language and art.

The report also addresses a need for additional staff, which is already planned for next school year.

It states that 25 percent of Harpswell Coastal Academy students require special education and that the school is collaborating with School Administrative District 75 to provide weekly occupational and physical therapy.

The charter school’s board has approved adding $40,000 to $50,000 to the budget to fund a half-time humanities and half-time special education teacher which would allow the head of school to focus on administrative responsibilities and help address reading levels, the report said.

The report states there is an active parent group and said parents “love the school and how the faculty and staff invest in their children,” and that they are “supportive and patient understanding there are details the faculty and staff are still working out.”

According to parents, “some children who never showed interest in learning are now researching information at home due to simple curiosity.”

The report states students are “engaged on many levels, from academic to building maintenance,” and that the field work in the marsh “represents the mission being carried out with students.”

Review team members who spoke with students reported the students “expressed excitement about the methods with which they are allowed to learn,” including one who stated her self-confidence had grown in the school environment.

Teachers are characterized in the report as an “engaged, committed and success-oriented faculty.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com