Wayfinder Schools

In 2011, Wayfinder Schools was created from a merger between Maine’s first alternative high school, The Community School (est. 1973), and Opportunity Farm (est. The two organizations united with a goal of encouraging life-long learning and providing students with the skills and experiences necessary to connect with their families, practice personal responsibility, and contribute to their communities. Over the years, Wayfinder Schools have become a state and nationally recognized model of alternative education and have helped hundreds of Maine adolescents realize their goal of graduating with a high school diploma. The success of Wayfinder Schools is based in very large part on the vision of our founders, Dora Lievow and Emanuel Pariser, who founded The Community School in 1973, and F. Forrest Pease, who established Opportunity Farm in 1910. Together, their vision for a better Maine future has helped generations of Maine youth discover their strengths. In more recent years, the organization has grown to double the number of students it can serve to seven Maine counties. We address the need to break the cycle of poverty and social problems that is a direct result of Maine teens not completing high school. Since 2009, Wayfinder Schools have posted consistently high graduation rates, with nearly 100 percent securing employment upon graduation, and more than half gaining acceptance to post secondary education programs.