Students at the elementary schools in Milbridge, Jonesport and now Charlotte are thriving under the efforts of an educational pilot project that is creating a new way of addressing barriers to learning, particularly stressors that happen outside of the school. The program, Transforming Rural Experience in Education or TREE, a division of the Cobscook Community Learning Center in Trescott, is moving educators from managing student behavior to understanding why the behavior is happening and how it affects the brain's ability to learn, explains Brittany Ray, director of the program. And just as importantly, TREE is using tools that encourage students to understand the power of using their own voices to develop self‑confidence, to manage their behavior and to embrace learning. All students benefit from the program.
     As a part of TREE's effort, an exercise is used to encourage students to express a wish and then see how that wish can be brought into being. Elementary school students are asked to fill in the blank of the question, "Someday at school I would like to..." One answered that they'd like everyone to bring their pets to school. Another wanted to serve everyone ice cream, and one little girl wanted to conduct a science class. Some students came up with poignantly simple answers -- to have seconds for lunch.
     Ray explains that the "someday" exercise was developed in reaction to a missing component to the initial program design, which utilizes social and emotional learning techniques and was developed in partnership with a number of organizations, including a research arm with the University of Maine and Colby College. "How do you really create an opportunity for student voice? That's a key level of our work." Ray and the TREE team began working with Bill Preble, the founder of the Center for School Climate and Learning. He recommended the "someday" exercise, which Ray explains "was TREE‑ified" to fit her program.
     "It really changed a lot" in the school, says Ray. "It was one of the first times the students felt heard and listened to. We found they were really thoughtful about their 'someday' answers." While bringing pets to school was not feasible, Milbridge students brought in photos of their pets, and a large wall was soon decorated with furry friends of all types. Parents and guardians reacted with pleasure when they came to the school, staying for a moment to chat. Another student asked that everyone bring in their favorite stuffed animal. Classrooms were afloat with well‑loved critters of different plush varieties. Teachers were quick to pick up on the learning potential, and the compliant critters were measured by students, with attributes listed and then graphed.
     TREE Coach Ashley Cirone at Jonesport Elementary School says, "A Pre‑K student's 'someday' wish was to simply go outside and look at the sky. The teacher started the day reading It Looked Like Spilt Milk, a story about seeing different objects within the clouds. The students created cloud paintings before going outside. When at last they were outside looking up at the clouds, we heard wonderful descriptions and stories of what they saw in those clouds."
     In addition, the "someday" exercise quickly showed its potential for micro‑adventures, something that the Colby College research arm brought to the table. Ray says, "They asked the Milbridge teachers for learning standards and created micro‑adventures," with curriculum wrapped into outdoor experiences for the elementary students. The school coach then began working with the teachers to implement the adventures. She adds, "We're looking for enrichment opportunities for students." TREE supports other organizations that have established enrichment connections with schools. It has begun collaborating with local organizations such as Edible Milbridge on curriculum‑based activities. Ray points out, "It's a whole‑body experience in non‑traditional environments."
     In addition, TREE has begun a partnership with the Maine Outdoor School. "We were hearing from kids that they wanted more outdoor time," says Ray. Now every week the Milbridge third through fifth graders have Thursday Forays and multiple grades at Jonesport have Forest Fridays. The summer leading up to the outdoor learning fun was spent with TREE, the Maine Outdoor School and teachers creating curriculum that incorporated hands‑on experiential learning. And as an additional resource for students, the schools have rooms full of outdoor clothing such as rain coats and boots so that there are no barriers to students going outdoors no matter what the weather.

Building a model after 9/11
     The TREE program began in 2016, but the discussion on its formation began in 2014. The program is inspired by the Turnaround for Children program that started in response to 9/11 and its impact on New York City school children. There's no shortage of research, Ray notes, that shows "that trauma is real and far more common" and directly impacts the brain's ability to learn. When focusing on the types and levels of support needed to allow all that math, science and English curriculum to be absorbed, "the best frameworks of support are about relationships," explains Ray. She adds that with positive relationships comes the flow of oxytocin, a hormone that among other things is critical to social bonding, which counteracts the negative attributes of another hormone, cortisol, that is released during times of stress and, if chronic, has long‑term negative health consequences.
     While the Turnaround program found that the terrorism of 9/11 had an impact on children, the program found that "it was really the day‑to‑day adverse situations" many children were living with, including poverty and substance abuse in the home, that were having the most impact. In a type of six degrees of separation example found frequently in Washington County, University of Maine Professor Richard Ackerman is a friend of CCLC founder Alan Furth and brother to the founder of the NYC program, Dr. Pamela Cantor. Thus started the conversation, "What would it look like to have a Turnaround as a rural model," recounts Ray.

Mental health access
     As a part of the initial work behind the TREE pilot project, focus groups were held in Washington County with over 200 people, including school administrators, teachers, students and parents. "We spent the first year committed to the fact that we wouldn't build a framework for something that wasn't needed," says Ray. They found that it was needed, with some tweaks, and developed a research practice partnership with Colby and the University of Maine. The rural model focused on the need for mental health counselors, a resource that can be hard to find and access, not only because of a lack of counselors at schools and in the county in general but because of insurance, cost and time barriers. In addition, school coaches were identified as an important link between the counselor, the teachers, the students and parents.
     "We meet one time a week," Ray says of the TREE team, including the research part. "It's not static. We have a lot of help with strategies" based on what the research is finding from the on‑the‑ground work being done in the schools. An example of how the research team members helped the on‑the‑ground team was immediately apparent when the Jonesport school joined the program. Milbridge elementary had been the first school to join, with a part‑time mental health counselor and coach in place.
     Ray says, "A key learning was that the mental health work at Milbridge had a level of seamless integration that didn't happen at Jonesport," where a coach had not yet been hired. It turned out that having both in place right from the start was critical. Within three weeks of the coach coming on board the seamless integration began to happen.
     Charlotte Elementary School is the third school to come into the TREE circle, and while it has a part‑time mental health counselor, it does not yet have a coach. Ray says, "We may need to tweak models with very small student populations" such as the Charlotte school.
     TREE recognized right away that the program needed to provide assistance with mental health access. It covers the cost of co‑pays for all the students in its program. One parent says, "We have no health insurance so it was very costly for me to spend for her to go to a counselor, sometimes $84. So, when they said someone was going to be at the school, I mean, we don't have to travel, we don't have to make arrangements to get there to and from. It just made life much easier." TREE also funds time for teachers to meet with the mental health caregiver. "Privacy is very much protected, but the provider can meet with the teacher to recommend techniques to use around specific issues like anxiety," the parent says. "And it really helps with how teachers as adults can shift their behaviors."
     Another parent says of their daughter, "She is the kind of kid that just pretends that absolutely everything is OK. And then when she breaks down, it's like a complete mental breakdown. And she hasn't had any of those spells or anything since she has somewhere to get everything out, which has helped her a lot."
     Ray says, "We know that parents are reporting less home stress," since the start of the program in their child's school.
     While Ray provides professional development on the TREE model around the state for a fee, all professional development in Washington County is free. In five years Ray says, "I really hope TREE has created a legacy of hope for public schools."
     For more information, visit <www.thecclc.org> and click on the TREE link.