Around Belfast it’s simply known as BCOPE. Though formally, it goes by the title of Belfast Community Outreach Program for Education.
BCOPE is the alternative education program for RSU 71. Even the BCOPE staff and administration admit there’s a certain stigma attached to the term alternative education. Some conjure visions of unruly kids warehoused in trailers behind the “real” school.
BCOPE is clearly not that.
The program that began in a leased space now has its own building, complete with gardens, greenhouse, a composting operation, and food pantry. Much of the upkeep is provided through student sweat, but most of those projects are student-led. BCOPE has embraced its founding philosophy of reaching and teaching every kid. The way in which they do it might just be a lesson for us all.
“We work with the at-risk kids, the kids that school doesn’t work for,” said BCOPE Teaching Principal Helen Scipione. “Kids are here for a variety of reasons. At-risk doesn’t necessarily connect in a straight line to socio-economic background. Everyone can learn and some learn in different ways. We help students discover how they learn best.”
Now in its 35th year, BCOPE serves at-risk students in grades 10-12. The program has evolved over time and continues to do so. BCOPE has held summer sessions for the past two years and the program is planning expansion to identify at-risk students in middle, and eventually, elementary school.
“We’ve had some attempts at a middle school program,” Scipione said, “but they haven’t been successful because the student would work in isolation with one other person. You need the right atmosphere.”
Funded by the state in 1990, BCOPE leased a space in the Belfast Shoe Factory (now the Belfast Center). Scipione was there, beginning her career in alternative education. The leased space was modest; the BCOPE program successful. In those early days, BCOPE educators worked with limited resources, in a limited space. This prompted the program to use the resources available and seek community partnerships as a way of increasing opportunities for students — a practice that continues to this day.
“This wouldn’t work without those partnerships,” Scipione said. “The community has really supported us.”
In the late 1990s, a change in the state funding formula forced BCOPE to look for a more permanent home. With a groundswell of community support, the program purchased the lot at 19 Merriam Road and the school was built over the summer of 2002. At the time, the building was one of just three such facilities designed and built, for the sole purpose of alternative education, in the United States. Students helped with the design and layout and chose the furniture.
Over the past two decades the school has added a greenhouse, garden, food pantry and a composting operation and food trailer — all of which are student-run. The BCOPE building houses classrooms, a music room and a kitchen. Daily meals and snacks are prepared for students, by students taking a cooking class. BCOPE has also added dozens of community partnerships that offer students a wider variety of educational — and life — experiences.
To say that BCOPE is student-centered is classic understatement.
“We realized very early that a relationship for learning with the kids is what matters,” Scipione said. “That’s where you start. We’ve been able to build an incredibly strong community. Our graduates speak for themselves.”
Lacey Ward is a junior at BCOPE. The Belfast 16-year-old acknowledges that she got “great” grades in elementary school but encountered anxiety in the classroom setting. As she prepared to enter middle school, the COVID pandemic forced her into an entirely new way of learning over Zoom.
“I didn’t really get to experience my first year of middle school,” Lacey said. “We were sent home, and I didn’t interact with people on a daily basis. That heightened my anxiety.”
In danger of being disenfranchised from school, she came to BCOPE, but left following a disagreement with Scipione.
“She didn’t give up on me,” Lacey said of Scipione. “She called and we worked it out.”
Lacey is back and grateful for the program that provides more than a place to learn.
“I missed it,” Lacey said. “This place is like a family. When I’m here I’m more focused. Without this, I’m not productive.”
BCOPE recently provided Lacey an internship at a local salon — with a former BCOPE graduate. The experience will help her in her desired career in cosmetology.
BCOPE educates up to 40 students (32 at present) from grades 10-12 each year. Students who attend BCOPE have chosen to be there. Classroom instruction sets the framework for real-world experiences with community partners. BCOPE is very much a project-based learning environment. Students design, organize, participate, and supervise projects at school and within the community.
Students circle up to begin and end each day. They are encouraged to “check in” with staff during the day, allowing them to focus on learning.
“If kids have something on their mind, they are not ready to learn,” Scipione said. “We can’t fix most of their problems, but we can listen. Once they have a place to kind of dump that, then they are ready to learn.”
Lacey Ward describes the BCOPE school day a bit differently.
“This place is weird,” she said. “You’re learning, but it’s not like being in school. Beyond the relationships and connections, it’s just fun to be here. Being here has changed my perspective on what school should be. Not everyone learns the same way.”
Lindsey Schortz teaches math and science, and runs the summer sessions at BCOPE. “The kids come here, and they learn,” she said. “It’s because we take the time to get to know them. Our belief is that every student can learn.”
Graduation requirements for BCOPE are the same as for students attending BAHS. BCOPE students can participate in BAHS extracurricular activities if academically eligible. They receive a BAHS diploma upon graduation.
BCOPE students come to the school with an alternative education plan (AEP). BCOPE staff work with each student, developing a relationship to learning, and getting to know how best each student learns.
BCOPE instruction is a combination of classroom, experiential and interdisciplinary learning. A geometry lesson may be followed by a construction project, allowing students to use math skills as life skills.
Scipione looks forward to program expansion.
“We’re really looking at trying to create a K-12 [alternative education] system,” she said.
With the support and assistance of RSU 71 Interim Superintendent Robert England, Scipione is proposing a hybrid program for at-risk students in grades 8 and 9. The program would have eighth grade students reporting to BCOPE during the morning and then moving on to their sending school. Ninth grade students would report to their sending school in the morning and report to BCOPE in the afternoon.
“The idea is they get to establish those important relationships, both classroom and social, at both places,” Scipione said.
BCOPE’s approach has clearly worked for Lacey Ward.
“I never thought school could be enjoyable,” she said. “With the confidence I’ve gained, I feel like I can do anything. BCOPE has changed my life.”
