By Kathy Onorato
Wiscasset School Board Chairman Steve Smith and interim Superintendent Lyford Beverage discuss the school closure process Aug. 28. (Kathy Onorato photo) |
Less than two weeks away from a formal decision by the Wiscasset School Board deciding which of the Wiscasset schools to close beginning the 2015-2016 school year, board members are looking for feedback from residents to help make this difficult decision.
Most discussions around school closure have suggested closing the middle school and moving grades 5 and 6 at the primary school and placing grades 7 and 8 in a separate wing at Wiscasset High School, which is only being used at 46 percent of its capacity.
“This will affect the least amount of our kids and teachers and it will be much easier and more cost effective to make changes to the primary school than the middle school. There are many more issues involved moving our pre- K through 4th grade kids to a new building,” Wiscasset School Board Chairman Steve Smith wrote in an Aug. 21 letter to the editor of The Lincoln County News.
“Now I’m not so sure,” Smith said at the regular meeting of the Wiscasset School Board Aug. 28.
After the school closure information appeared in the paper, Smith said he heard from residents expressing support to make the Wiscasset Middle School a K-8 school and close the primary school. Now he is re-thinking his original decision, Smith said.
Considering the cost of operating the primary school is about $31,000 per year more than operating middle school, Smith indicated that $31,000 could be used to help offset the costs of improvements needed at the middle school. The middle school would need to accommodate more than 170 additional students who currently attend the primary school.
According to recent statistics release by the Wiscasset School Board, the Wiscasset Middle School’s capacity is already at 73 percent.
Concerns expressed about the middle school included the limited expansion possibilities and the parking situation, which is already an issue and adding five grades to the school would create additional parking problems for staff and parents. Smith suggested the old tennis courts could easily be converted to a parking lot.
“Those tennis courts haven’t been used in 10 years,” he said.
Although the Wiscasset Middle School was a K-8 school, prior to the Wiscasset Primary School’s construction in the early 1970s, it will require upgrades to accommodate the additional K-4 students if the Wiscasset Primary School closes.
According a recent memo issued by interim Superintendent Lyford Beverage, following a study of all three schools, the middle school will likely require bathroom work, playground work, classroom renovations, handicap accessibility, stairway safety adjustments, parking lot and other improvements. The memo indicates a conversation with the architect who performed an earlier survey recommended closing the middle school.
Wiscasset resident, and a parent of a middle school student, Marita Fairfield said the Wiscasset Middle School was the better facility to keep open because of availability of gymnasium, a full-size cafeteria, a stage, and because the school is a part of Wiscasset’s history.
“The decision should be what’s good for the kids,” she said.
Over the next couple of weeks, Beverage plans to compile and make available information regarding costs and feasibility of each school for a comparison for residents to learn more about which school closure is the most viable.
“Sentimentality is running quite high in this community,” board member Eugene Stover said. “We’re damned if we do. We’re damned if we don’t.”
Selectman Bill Barnes expressed the need of the town to put the past behind them and think of the future.
“If we are going to survive as a town, we are going to have to start sharing more than schools,” said Barnes.
On Monday, Sept. 15, the board will hold an emergency meeting to take a formal vote on which school to close and prepare wording for a possible warrant article to present to the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Sept. 16. The Sept. 15 meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m., will be held in the high school library.
According to Wiscasset Town Clerk Christine Wolfe, Sept. 16 is the deadline for selectmen to act on questions for the Nov. ballot.
In a phone interview on August 29, Wolfe said if the selectmen approve the question submitted by the school board, its place on the ballot becomes a binding question and a petition is not required to make it binding, she said.
