Based on a letter, Mark Eastman expects a brief reprieve for the closings.
WEST PARIS – The town faces uncertainty about the future of elementary students at the Agnes Gray and Legion Memorial Schools, prompted by the state as it moves ahead in considering a regional approach to education as a way to reduce costs.
According to SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman Thursday, the schools have at least a few more years in the same form as they are today, but there is no long-range answer.
“I feel fairly confident that the schools in West Paris will be safe for another four or five years,” said Dr. Eastman, “but I can’t say forever because I can’t be sure of that.”
Based on a letter received recently from Maine’s Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, Eastman expects a brief reprieve for the closing of the two schools, even after a new school, now planned for South Paris, is completed.
In the letter Gendron states that members of the State Board of Education are satisfied with the planning for the new 450-student Paris elementary school and that project should proceed. Site approval for the school will be reviewed by the board in the near future.
“It is not clear what impact that work will have on future school construction, but we cannot assume that there will be an impact,” she said in the report. “I believe all parties share the District’s concern that elementary students should not spend excessive time traveling to and from school.”
Future construction, the report continued, would depend on capacity of existing buildings and demographics, and that the new school be expandable in the future.
“I feel good about this letter,” said Eastman. “I believe for the next four or five years losing their schools will not be an issue for the people of West Paris, but beyond that I can’t say at this time.”
The possibility the town could lose its elementary schools first surfaced earlier this year when school board representative Dale Piirainen reported to the selectmen that the state had scrapped plans to renovate and build an addition on the Agnes Gray School.
“The state has decided that the old school does not have seventy-five years of useful life left,” said Piiarainen said at the time. “As a result it has decided it will not put money into renovating and adding on and there is thinking that our kids will have to be transported to the new school planned for South Paris.”
The report did not please the selectmen as it was their understanding when SAD 17 was formed in the early 1960s that all eight adjoining towns – Harrison, Hebron, Norway, Otisfield, Oxford, South Paris, Waterford and West Paris – would keep their own elementary schools.
“When we joined the district we were promised in writing that all eight towns would keep their own elementary schools,” said selectman Harlan Abbott. “Only junior high and high school students would be transferred to South Paris to go to Oxford Hills High School. All other towns in the district have their elementary schools so why should we be the only town in the district not to have its own school. It will hurt this town if we lose it and the people are going to be very upset if we do.”
The SAD 17 school board agrees with the selectmen’s thinking and have said clearly that all members of the board are willing and eager to back the Town of West Paris in its effort to keep its elementary students attending school as close their homes as possible. Also all other eight district towns have spoken out in support of West Paris, some even taking straw votes at their town meetings last spring to make their support clear.
Eastman assured the selectmen that he and the SAD 17 School Board will continue to fight for West Paris. If the state eventually decides it will not help the town, it is possible the district can renovate and add on to the Agnes Gray School on its own.
“We may be able to remodel and upgrade the Agnes School on our own in the future if the other towns in the district approve of the project,” Eastman said.
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