Contextual Factors Analysis: Regional School District 18

Spring 2022

Zackary E. Hubbard
 The Regional School District 18 (RSU 18) is known to be the school district of central

Maine, and is the China and Messalonskee school district. The surrounding area of Messalonskee

and the towns involved with the districts are Oakland,China, Belgrade, and Sidney Maine. Each

town contributes to the overall population of the RSU 18 district. According to the town of

Sidney’s website, sidneymaine.org, the population of this particular town is just over 4,000, and

the last census offered in 2010 states 4,208. The town of Sidney has their own town office as

well as a local elementary school that serves as a feeder school. For those inquiring, a feeder

school in terms of this paper is a school that serves to increase populations of the RSU 18

district, and in this case it

would be to increase the

population of Messalonskee

Middle School and

Messalonskee High School.

The school located in

Sidney Maine is James H.

Bean Elementary. This school

is located at 2896 Middle Road, Sidney Maine and has a population of roughly 255 students

(School Detail for James H Bean School). Utilizing the National Center for Educational Statistics

(NCES) website, demographics for all the local schools become more accessible, at least for the

2019-2020 academic year. James H Bean school is a Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade school

and is primarily white, but the demographics can be viewed using figure 1.1 above. James H

Bean is one of the known feeder schools that goes into RSU 18 district once students hit the 6th
grade, they go to Messalonskee Middle School. Outside of Sidney in terms of the RSU 18 district

there is Belgrade Maine.

In Belgrade based on Maine an Encyclopedia website, the rough estimate of the

population would be around the 3,100+, as a rough estimate since it’s been since 2010 since an

accurate population count has been updated. As far as schools go, Belgrade has their early level

school, Belgrade Central, and the school and population in regards to Belgrade Maine are a

reference to the ‘Maine: An Encyclopedia’ source (Belgrade: Maine: An Encyclopedia).

Utilizing the NCES resource for Belgrade Central, the school is located at 158 Depot Road,

Belgrade Maine and has roughly a population of 232 students since the 2019-2020 academic

school years. Much like the study for James H Bean School for Sidney Maine, the demographic

for race and

ethnicity are broken

down and featured

on figure 1.2.

Belgrade Central is

another school that

is a part of the RSU

18 district with

students that will

eventually reach

Messalonskee High School.

The next region that makes up the RSU 18 district is China Maine.

According to china.govoffice.com, the website representing China Maine, a census from

2020 states a population of around 4,339. Within that population, China has two schools

involved within the

RSU 18 district. The

first school is China

Primary. This is a

Pre-Kindergarten

school through 4th

grade. According to

NCES statistics for the

2019-2020 population

census, this school has

about 233 students and is broken down into different ethnicities with figure 1.3. China

Primary school can be found at 763 Lakeview Drive, China ME, with a zip code of

04926.

The other school from China Maine that is inclusive of the RSU 18 district would

be China Middle

school. China

Middle School is a

grade 5-8 School

and can be located

using the same

address and zip

code as China
 Primary. In accordance with NCES statistics for the 2019-2020 academic year, China

Middle School has 201 students for that academic year. Much like China Primary, China

Middle Schools suffers from a lower population diversity which can also be viewed using

figure 1.4 above . China Middle School is more or less a feeder school to Messalonskee

High School, and many of the students that go to China Middle School are often from

China Primary School.

The last few schools in question are located in Oakland Maine, and the first of those last

few is Atwood Primary School. Atwood Primary School is located at 19 Heath Street, Oakland

Maine, 05963. Utilizing data from NCES for the 2019-2020 academic year, Atwood Primary had

around 247 students. This seems rather high considering that the school is a Pre-Kindergarten

through 2nd grade school, and the Oakland Maine population is just over 2,300 citizens.

Regardless, Atwood

Primary School,

much like the rest in

the RSU 18 District

thus far suffers from

a lack of diverse

population in the

school. The figure

1.5 below depicts

Atwood Primary’s

diversity of

ethnicity.
 The next school in Oakland Maine is Messalonskee Middle School. Messalonskee

Middle School is a 6-8th grade school that accepts students from the James H. Bean School in

Sidney Maine, Belgrade Central in Belgrade, Williams Elementary School in Oakland, and

students from Atwood Primary School in Oakland Maine. Each school helps to grow the

population that

makes it to

Messalonskee

Middle School and

this shows as

2019-2020 data

given from NCES

states that

Messalonskee

Middle School’s

population was roughly 521 students. Much like the other schools this far, figure 1.6 will break

down Messalonskee Middle School’s population into various ethnicities. In addition, the location

of Messalonskee Middle School is at the following address: 33 School Bus Drive Oakland,

Maine, 04963. This school as well, acts as a much larger feeder school for the bigger brother so

to speak, Messalonskee High School.

Messalonskee High School is a 9th-12th grade school, and has a population (From NCES

2019-2020 data) of around 738 students. The school’s address goes as follows: 131

Messalonskee High Drive Oakland, Maine, 04963. Messalonskee High School is the highest

point of contact for any student involved with the RSU 18 district. The high school receives
students from Messalonskee Middle School, a larger feeder school than the local elementary

schools, and China Middle School. China Middle School is very similar to Messalonskee Middle

School in that it’s a much larger feeder school that builds upon Messalonskee High School’s

overall student

population. Much like

the other schools in this

district, Messalonskee

High School isn’t a

very diverse school

(View Fig. 1.7), as most

of the student base is

primarily of White

ethnicity. It doesn’t hurt

student to teacher climate in school per say, but can make for outcomes of less ethnic related

education in this particular school system. That is hard to say, but it should be noted that the RSU

18 district is primarily of White ethnicity.

Some other general items in regards to geography and the student base is, at least yearly

from what I gather, a town-wide festival in Oakland. This festival usually has some kind of floats

/ parade that occurs, but also some fun activities and games for children to partake in with their

parents. It involves the town of Oakland primarily, but parents and students of the various RSU

18 district schools are also encouraged to attend and participate in the activities. Oakfest in

Oakland Maine also involves partnership with the charity known as the Shine on Cass

Foundation. In accordance with Oakfest and the Oakland School food pantries, Shine on Cass
Foundation often asks for donations for the local schools to help those in need. The idea of the

Shine on Cass Foundation is to provide as well as show kindness to those who are less fortunate.

A great foundation to be partnered with. As far as general geography is concerned, the RSU 18

district covers quite a few towns around the heart of the district, Oakland Maine.

My own student teaching experience is at Messalonskee High School in Oakland, Maine.

Within this school, the courses to which my responsibility lies are two sections of AP United

States History, which is composed of all sophomores (10th Graders) and a total of twenty-one

students between both sections (10 Students one class, 11 students in the other class). The other

course under my own responsibility is two sections of Modern World History, which is a mix of

all grades: freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The catch here is that giving the Modern

World History students a learner strength survey, or even a teacher survey isn’t helpful to me as

my time with these students is roughly one week left due to transition of semester long classes.

However, a survey for the AP United States History Students is more helpful so that forms of

learning can be interpreted and adapted while giving instruction. With that in mind, the survey

used for the study was simply titled as “Assessment: Find Your Strengths!” and would point to

which learning style best fits the students. Though these kinds of surveys aren’t always true

indicators of learning. With that in mind, the following figures, Figure 1.8 depicts results from

my third period AP United States History class and my fourth period AP United States History
class respectively.

Approaching Figure 1.8, it shows clear evidence of how students, based on the survey,

approach their own learning. Working with the students for a few weeks now, it also makes sense

as a majority of the ten to eleven student classes are featured to play in some form of sports or

extracurricular activities where they spend more of their time moving about and learning new

maneuvers or skills related to respective activities. What this does for the teacher, myself, is to

plan instruction that gets students up and moving about, but to keep it on track with regards to

Social Studies curriculum that they are needing to reach in regards to the AP United States

History standards of learning. Also, should be noted that no student within this Advanced

Placement course has an IEP, 504, or other individualized learning plan that needs to be adjusted

for.
 Having this information informs the instruction delivery based on what each class has for

learner strengths, which is helpful to the extent that should weather permit, and the school is

okay with it, a class outdoors could be done to convey a lesson to the students. Along with the

AP students, there’s the Modern World History Students. These students I did not give the survey

mostly in part that they were only my students for the last two weeks of a semester, and valuing

their time, gave them a few days to work on their final projects versus adding on another

assignment that would’ve taken them another five to fifteen minutes. That in mind, as their

acting teacher, I was able to look and see if there were any individual learning plans, 504s, or

IEPs. Between two sections of Modern World History, there are / were, about forty-five students,

if they had shown up. Of the lot only four really stood out to needing special accommodations /

learning plans. A couple of them mostly needed extra time and reminders to keep on track with

assignments, one needed some alternative readings as well as lessen workload to keep up to pace

with their peers. One of the last students that actually stood out was one that had already taken

the class, but was mistakenly put into this particular course again. That last student being the one

who ended up working on other work due to their circumstance. The point here is that there

wasn’t too much need for differentiated instruction in the last couple weeks due to information

provided by both the Guidance department and the Special Education department, and being the

teacher, was helpful in regards to providing instruction.

As far as the RSU 18 District goes, it is primary white and in what I would consider to be

an urban area with fairly large towns that make-up the district. Having numerous feeder schools

from Sidney, Belgrade, China, and Oakland Maine helps to support a healthy student-based

population, and within each of those towns, there are various annual events that occur to push the

vast populations into supporting the school district and the community at large. Within the
district, Messalonskee High School works hard to achieve a friendly and understanding staff that

understands their students and works to make sure the teachers understand as well so that they

may best support their students in regards to learning. Knowing that students thought about their

learning styles only helps to establish some instructional fundamentals that may or may not work

within the classroom, but that is part of the trials and tribulations a teacher must go through in

order to plan and instruct to the best of their abilities.

 Citations / Bibliography

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“Home.” RSU 18 District, 7 Jan. 2022, https://rsu18.org/.

Multiple Intelligences -- Assessment,

https://www.literacynet.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html.

“Oakfest, Oakfest Maine, Oakland Maine.” Oakfest, https://www.oakfestmaine.com/.

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ShineOnCass, https://www.shineoncass.org/.

“Welcome to the Town of China, Maine!” Town of China, Maine,

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