Kittery Marketplace Pledges Financial Support for a Proposed Alternative Ed Program in Kittery Schools

Managing Partner Ed Huminick, a former N.H. school board member, would provide retail training to at-risk Kittery students

KITTERY - Ed Huminick, managing partner of Kittery Marketplace, today announced that he will pledge $10,000 in seed money toward the development of a proposed, first-ever alternative education program in Kittery schools.

Kittery Marketplace, a proposed outlet center between Adams and Cutts roads on Route 1, also intends to spearhead a retail training aspect of the program, Huminick said, and will assist in getting the Kittery business community involved as well.

Kittery School Superintendent Larry Littlefield said Tuesday that he is gratified by Huminick's involvement and looked forward to an ongoing partnership with Kittery Marketplace and other segments of Kittery's business community as the proposal continues to develop.

"This is a program that we really want to be able to launch, but tax dollars are scarce and there's simply no funding for it," Littlefield said. "The concept of working together with Kittery Marketplace and the business community holds the greatest promise of ever bringing this to fruition."

"The idea for an alternative education program is a great one, and I wanted to make a financial pledge now to make my support clear," said Huminick, an accountant from Salem, N.H., who chaired the school board there for six years and also serves on that town's zoning board of appeals. "From my experience, I understand the need for the business community to step forward and work with its local school system. We intend to actively support the school system in Kittery."

Littlefield wants to offer the alternative education program to at-risk students in grades 7-12 beginning with the 2001-2002 school year. Successful completion of the program would lead to a high school diploma or GED. Last year, 19 Kittery students dropped out and a recent survey of students indicated an expressed lack of interest in school among a segment of the students.

Littlefield believes an alternative education program is a key way to reach out to students in need and provide them with guidance and direction. "We need to catch kids earlier than we catch them now, which is quite often too late," he said.

Littlefield estimated it will cost $140,000 a year to fund the program, which includes the salary of a teacher, social worker and ed tech, as well as rent and operating expenses. The students would be housed near Traip Academy to allow for integration with school activities and facilities. Program hours would be flexible to the differing needs of students. Service learning and experiential activities would be central to the program to augment the core academic program, he said.

That's where Huminick comes in. Besides financial backing, he has offered to become involved in a retail training component, providing the students with the opportunity for hands on learning of necessary job skills.

"Getting an education is paramount, but so is learning job skills," Huminick said. "These kids will have a leg up when they enter the workforce. I think alternative education is something the entire town can support. But I also think the business community has a responsibility to help out."

His proposed project, the Kittery Marketplace, would create 1,000 new retail jobs for the Kittery area. The 246,000-square-foot facility would consist of shingle-style architecture in a campus-like design with roomy walkways, green spaces and just one curb cut onto Route 1.

Huminick says his pledge to the Kittery schools is part of what he practices, called 'socially responsible development.' For example, he has committed to pay $50,000 each and every year to Kittery for a new police officer and provide a police substation rent free. Also, Kittery Marketplace is paying all costs to move the on-site mobile home park residents to larger lots in a nearby park and freezing their rents for five years, is paying the entire cost of a comprehensive traffic study of the Route 1 corridor in Kittery and is providing the land for a new, improved, state-of-the-art nursing home to replace the Homestead facility. A much-needed senior center in the facility will be open for community use, free of charge.

Huminick has launched a public awareness campaign in anticipation of a September 26 referendum that seeks to backdate an ordinance and rescind preliminary approvals for his project, which was legally grandfathered. Passage would send the matter to court. He is urging residents to vote 'No' so the project, which would bring an estimated net of about $600,000 a year in new tax dollars to Kittery, will be allowed to proceed through the vigorous state and local approval process.

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