Welcome to the Troy Howard Middle School webpage. We are proud of our school and community and look forward to sharing with you all that we have to offer students. Troy Howard Middle School serves students in grades six, seven, and eight from the towns of Northport, Belfast, Swannville, Belmont, Searsmont, and Morrill. We are the first opportunity for students in MSAD #34 from these towns to come together as one class before they move onto Belfast Area High School. Total school enrollment runs around 470 students each year with approximately 60 staff members. We are located on a sixty acre wooded lot, next door to the Waldo County YMCA, and walking distance from downtown Belfast.
Our middle school practices middle level concepts as defined in the document, “This We Believe” produced and published by the National Middle School Association. Students are engaged in a rigorous curriculum developed locally in alignment with the Maine State Learning Standards. Troy Howard staff strives to implement this curriculum through the integration of content areas as much as possible. Just one example of this integration occurring at Troy Howard is the Garden program that allows students to learn material from multiple subjects through agricultural based experiences. Our unique location allows for and encourages staff and students to engage in inquiry based learning.
We are aware of the unique and diverse needs of young adolescents and have developed a number of practices to help them traverse the rocky waters of “growing up”. All students participate in an advisory program that we call Pride Time two times a week. Interdisciplinary teams are utilized at the seventh and eighth grade, each team works with approximately 75 students. The grouping of students changes each year so as to facilitate the development of positive social skills and collegiality amongst all members of each grade. Students are divided heterogeneously into two teams at each grade level. Teachers make decisions of class groupings following an initial two week period of informal skill assessment at the beginning of the school year.
A teaching partner model is used at the sixth grade in order to provide support for students during the transitional year. Planned activities occur with fifth grade students in the spring to begin the transition process and an orientation for sixth grade students and parents occurs the first day of school.
Troy Howard Middle School strives to meet the diverse learning needs of students in a number of ways. We provide a variety of services for students with special needs. A special education teacher is provided for each interdisciplinary team. This person works with students receiving special education services within the typical classroom environment. They are involved as co-teachers within the regular classroom providing support and also can provide pull out support as needed for students on that team. Four day treatment classrooms are also a part of our school community. Two of these classrooms are part of the Horizons program meeting the needs of students with emotional disabilities that require a more restrictive learning environment. The other two classrooms are referred to as the “PAWS” program and is primarily for students with Developmental Disabilities that require a more functional learning environment for all or part of the school day.
We are also fortunate to have an alternative education program for students who have struggled with the more traditional classroom. This program allows for students to learn within a smaller student/teacher ratio with the goal of maximizing success and transitioning students back into the general learning environment.
Troy Howard provides a number of extra-curricular opportunities for students to be involved in at the end of the school day. Athletics, drama, clubs, student government and advocacy, and fine arts are all available to students in grades six through eight. The school day is enhanced with the inclusion of the unified arts program at each grade level. The unified arts teacher work as a part of the interdisciplinary team for half of the school year so as to facilitate integration of the arts into daily instruction as appropriate.
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