In the photo here are Amy Hocking, Houlton Rotary president, Alan Morris, president of the Carleton Project and Robyn Crone, Houlton Rotarian.

Robyn’s guest recently at Rotary was Al Morris. Al founded the Carleton Project after 20 years of teaching in public schools and seeing a need to match his vision. He opened his first private school in 1999 in the town of Presque Isle with 12 students. Today he has added 5 locations and has an enrollment of over 100 students. Al’s job is 1/3 education, 1/3 politics, 1/3 social work. He had a social worker on staff as well as educators. The Project’s mission is student success. A safe environment is created for learning to achieve the students’ goals. The schools run year round to keep the students engaged and successful and accountable. Students who could fall through the cracks are educated through exploration and habit formation to thrive. This is not a special needs facility as those needs are met elsewhere. Individuals are guided and supportive of each other through shared editing of their work to assisted learning in an alternative education format. Goals are set and students are held accountable. Al make sure that graduates have a one year plan before they graduate. 75% of the student body go onto higher education.

Al can be reached at alamo@carletonproject.com. His Houlton location is housed in the Higher Education Center on Bangor Road. For more information visit or email Al.