Van Driver

KVCAP launches new bus route connecting Augusta, Fairfield. The route will run for at least 4 months as a demonstration project to gauge the level of interest for longer-term offerings. Communities: Posted 4:00 AM The Kennebec Valley Community Action Project is continuing to expand its fixed-route public transportation offerings with a new bus route connecting Fairfield and Augusta. The KVCAP route, launched Monday, will start at 63 High St. in Fairfield, stop by Kennebec Valley Community College on Western Avenue, then travel down Interstate 95 to MaineGeneral Medical Center, Walmart and the Augusta Transportation Center, said Kirk Bellavance, senior transportation director at KVCAP. The route will run eight times a day from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Fares are $4 between Augusta and Fairfield and $2 for trips within either community. Discounted fares are $2 between Augusta and Fairfield and $1 for local trips. Discounted fares are available to riders ages 11-17 and 65 and older, veterans, people with disabilities and Medicare cardholders. Both this route and a western Augusta route also launched by KVCAP on Monday will be four-month demonstration projects to gauge the level the of interest and need for the routes. KVCAP is self-financing the demonstration route between Fairfield and Augusta but received funding for the Augusta-only route from the city of Augusta's sale of the old police station building to Developer's Collaborative, which plans to create affordable housing. Augusta city officials and KVCAP also made a quick push to get a public bus route up and running to help Developer's Collaborative score higher on grant applications for its affordable housing project. If the new Fairfield route is successful, KVCAP will look into finding funding from community partners or the town of Fairfield to extend the route into the future. KVCAP launched this service with Kennebec Valley Community College and University of Maine at Augusta students and those needing to get to the hospital in mind, Bellavance said. The organization used to offer a route between Fairfield and MaineGeneral, but discontinued it in 2023 after the pandemic resulted in decreased ridership. KVCAP switched instead to offering appointment-based transportation in Waterville, Augusta, Skowhegan, Fairfield and Winslow. Now, with the demonstration program approach, KVCAP is hoping to determine the current level of interest and ridership in the route. Bellavance said he hopes to see a minimum of two riders per hour for the route over the next few months. KCVAP is also proposing two 12-month pilot program routes, a northern and an eastern route in Augusta, in January in addition to potentially extending the western Augusta and Fairfield-Augusta routes. The organization will hold public meetings and conduct surveys during the pilot period to hear community feedback on the two year-long proposed routes.

OPINION: How a small town in rural Maine built a public school that serves a whole community, including infants and toddlers. The Hechinger Report did not just build a school. The Hechinger Report built a case for a new way forward For years, early childhood leaders have been asked to solve structural problems with predictable answers: Improve quality. Expand access. Support families. Retain educators. Strengthen transitions into kindergarten. All of it matters, but none of it can be fully accomplished with its fragmented system, one in which Head Start, child care, public pre-K, special education and K-12 are all funded separately, governed separately and operated separately. On their own, these programs don't always fit the needs and realities that many families with young children are actually facing. That's why in rural Skowhegan, Maine - a community facing significant challenges, including poverty, transportation barriers and a shortage of care options - The Hechinger Report decided not to work around that fragmentation but to fix it. Following the national Educare model, The Hechinger Report intentionally engaged in a combination of cross-sector partnerships and public policy change in a local effort. The result is a broad solution: A new infant-through-grade-five public school that includes babies, toddlers, preschoolers and elementary students on one campus. In Skowhegan, The Hechinger Report did not want to just build a school; The Hechinger Report wanted to build a case for a new way forward that shows what high-quality early education can look like in practice when systems align. Educators in Skowhegan and at Educare have known from the outset that one strong school would never be enough. That's why The Hechinger Report sought to create a replicable structure in which children could learn in inclusive settings and where families could access support through a more connected system. In its rural state, Educare wanted to influence the broader conditions that shape quality for children and families across communities. That meant starting with partnerships and increasing commitments to early care and education from all stakeholders, including the area's future workforce. Such partnerships build trust, and deepening that trust made greater change possible. Through its Educare Maine Lab School and Learning Hub, The Hechinger Report partnered with home-based and center-based child care providers in Skowhegan. (Educare Maine was formerly known as Educare Central Maine.) Educare did not approach that work as outside experts arriving with answers. Educare coaches worked alongside local providers to strengthen quality, stabilize programs and build a more coherent early childhood ecosystem. And its joint work surfaced evidence from other communities. With the University of Maine, The Hechinger Report gathered data showing that providers were more likely to sustain their businesses and improve quality when they had coordinated support. That local pilot program became the basis for statewide legislation: First4ME, a model designed to help communities collaborate around early care and education rather than compete within a fragmented system. As Skowhegan planned a new elementary school, local leaders rallied, choosing not to replicate the traditional model, and instead aligned the building with Educare Maine's research model of child development and family needs, professional development and community partnerships. Because there were already infant and toddler classrooms on the district campus, the superintendent made a compelling case to the state that its youngest learners should be included in the future of this school. That helped persuade Maine's Department of Education to do something it had never done before - include infant-toddler space in a new school construction project, a fundamental policy shift signaling that care and education do not need to exist in separate silos. Families cannot navigate five disconnected systems across long distances with limited transportation and few available providers. Programs cannot sustain quality without shared infrastructure. And communities cannot thrive when early childhood is treated as a private challenge instead of a public priority. What happened in Skowhegan was not accidental. It was built step by step, and it helped redefine what public education can be. But the fragmentation in its area wasn't limited to the provision of early education. Too often, early childhood policy discussions focus on isolated interventions - one grant here, one pilot there, one program expansion somewhere else. But families do not experience policies and systems in pieces. They experience them as either connected or disconnected, accessible or burdensome, responsive or impossible to navigate. If, in other districts, The Hechinger Report want systems that work, The Hechinger Report has to build them the way The Hechinger Report did in Skowhegan. Educare Maine is now continuing this work across the state, assisting communities in recognizing opportunities for both local and broader solutions. What began as a local necessity in Skowhegan now offers a scalable blueprint for a nation drowning in child care deserts and fragmented systems. By following Maine's lead - pooling cross-sector funds and rewriting state construction policies to include infants - other states can stop applying temporary band-aids to early education. Integrating infant-to-grade-five care directly into public school infrastructure transforms a private family burden into a shared public asset, proving that the best way to solve a national crisis is to stop building systems in pieces and finally build them whole. Tracye Fortin is the Educare Maine chief impact officer and former chief operating officer of KVCAP Child & Family Services and Educare Maine at Waterville. Contact the opinion editor at [email protected]. This story about public school for infants and toddlers was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger's weekly newsletter. Was this story helpful? Leave a tip to support your education reporters. The Hechinger Report is a nonprofit newsroom powered by reader support Republish its articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.