12 Summer Street
Hampden, ME 04444

While the education is good for the most part, the food is almost not edible as the chicken often looks raw or still pink. As well as there are only some good teachers there, Mrs. Mallory, Mr. Kash, Mrs. Cowan etc.

My daughter thrived at this school and has since moved on to middle school, where she is also doing great. My son tends to be quite sensitive and has had some issues with the loss of family pets and feeling left out of playground activities. Through the help of the caring staff and the school counselor, he has been able to overcome these obstacles. Add to that the excellent teaching skills and understanding staff, and I am thrilled to have my children in this school system.

For those of you thinking of moving to Hampden, I would have advised you to do so ten years ago but if you have school-aged children, my advice is to stay away from the RSU22/Hampden area school district.Recently overtaken by woke politics, and after conducting an "equity audit", the schools have gone into a decline. One of my children reports being repeatedly asked what pronoun she would prefer, students are allowed to "change names" and take on names such as "Frog" etc. School board members repeatedly acknowledge looking at all decisions through an "equity lens" which is code for CRT. Although they will deny it, the leadership is deeply committed to the principles of the woke educational consultancy. The academic success that this district was known for has taken a back seat in the past two years. Frankly, they are coasting on the demographics of the area, which have high levels of parent education and income. On top of this, the decision to have school in person only two days a week during the last year was catastrophic to all students. Whereas a neighboring school district, Bangor, managed to have their students in school five days a week, Hampden's children suffered greatly because of the school board and superintendent's lack of imagination/ Only when there was a general revolt among parents in the spring of 2021, did they offer four days of in-person learning for K-5.My advice, find a town nearby with school choice. Sadly, RSU22 is a dead end.