Wiscasset School Committee Renames Schools

The buildings formerly known as the Wiscasset High School and the Wiscasset Middle School have been given new names. After months of soliciting community feedback with lackluster results, the school committee decided on new names for the school buildings that will house the district’s pre-kindergarten-through-grade-12 student body at the school committee meeting Thursday, June 25.

After lengthy discussion, including discussion of a new name for the entire district, committee members voted 4-1 to name the current middle school Wiscasset Elementary School and the current high school Wiscasset Middle High School for the 2015-2016 school year.

For months, the school committee has worked to engage the community in developing new names for Wiscasset’s two remaining school buildings. Wiscasset voted to close its primary school in December 2014 and transition to a two-school district with the middle school housing pre-kindergarten through grade six and the high school housing grades seven through 12.

Unofficial votes were taken from the community for new names at Wiscasset’s annual referendum town meeting June 9. According to committee member Chelsea Haggett, only 25 responses were received, with the majority focusing on new names for the high school.

Seven voted for Wiscasset Academy. There were scattered votes for maintaining the name Wiscasset High School, renaming the high school Wiscasset Junior Senior High School, and renaming the middle school Wiscasset Elementary School.

One person voted for naming the high school Hesper and the middle school Luther Little, after the historic four-mast schooners that were long grounded in Wiscasset. “I liked that,” Haggett said. “That one was really creative.”

Committee members expressed disappointment that there was not more community involvement in developing names for the schools. However, with the deadline ticking for state reporting requirements for which school names are needed, committee members were forced to make a decision.

School committee member Eugene Stover suggested renaming the entire school district the Sheepscot River School District. However, due to issues with reporting requirements, other committee members did not feel renaming the entire district was feasible.

Eventually, the school committee decided to rename the middle school the Wiscasset Elementary School and the high school the Wiscasset Middle High School to better reflect the grades and ages of the students those buildings will serve in the upcoming school year.

Stover was the one opposing vote to the new names, due to his support for renaming the district.

According to Wiscasset School Department Administrative Assistant Stacey Souza, lettering from the middle school can be added to the high school to reduce the cost of renaming the schools.

With new names decided on, the school department is one step closer to completing its transition to a two-school district.

According to Haggett, work on the elementary school playground is in the preliminary phases, and Wiscasset School Department Maintenance Director John Merry has been contacting paving contractors for quotes to fix the pavement.

Moving dates have been tentatively scheduled for July and work on upgrading the buildings has begun, interim Superintendent Lyford Beverage said in his last superintendent’s report.