Anna Klein-Christie spoke about Baxter Academy, a public charter public school located in Portland focusing on science, technology, engineering and math education.
Anna Klein-Christie, Executive Director of Baxter Academy joined us to tell us more about this public school in Portland which is 1 of 9 charter schools in Maine. Students are chosen through a lottery system, not by merit or ability to afford, which makes it a level playing field for all. The school is committed to the same outcomes of a traditional public education but they are able to reach their students through more innovative means with more flexibility and freedom. Many of their teachers are not formally trained educators but actual experts in their field, who are able to teach real-time, relevant skills. The focus of their curriculum is STEM—science, technology, engineering and math.
20% of the student's time is dedicated to a STEM-based project of their choosing. They prepare a proposal and present it to a panel of adults who evaluate the strength of the idea. Students are given a safe space to explore and succeed and to feel liberated to be creative and reach their goals.
Baxter Academy may be most well-known for their Robotics Team who created a robot named Sophie, with wheels that rotated in a special way. The students who worked on this were invited to NASA and got to hang out with astronauts for a day!
Students are able to obtain college credits through SMCC and Husson. There are currently 379 students enrolled. Dan Sayre shared that his nephew graduated from Baxter and had a fantastic experience. Anna drove home the Rotary connection by mentioning her experience meeting Rotarians in Guatemala for the Safe Passage Project that Baxter students were also involved with. for more info on Baxter Academy, visit https://baxter-academy.org/