All children may attend elementary school in their hometowns

for the first time.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

PARIS – The public hearing Tuesday concerning SAD 17’s request to use $210,000 to purchase land for a Paris elementary school was quick and to the point.

After a 20-minute presentation by Superintendent Mark Eastman, few questions remained.

SAD 17 has a question on the Nov. 4 ballot seeking permission from voters in the eight towns comprising the district to take money from undesignated fund balances to buy for the property and then issue bonds or notes to replace the money.

Eastman explained that any interest incurred on the bond or notes would be included in the total project cost, of which 99 percent would be paid by the state.

It is estimated the 1 percent remaining would cost the district about $80,000.

“The referendum will allow us to buy the land and use bond funds, not local funds,” Eastman said.

School Board Chairman Dale Piirainen noted that when the school is built, all children will attend elementary school in their hometowns for the first time since the district was formed 11 years ago.

Children in grades K-3 attend the Agnes Gray Elementary School in Paris and children in grades 4-6 attend the Madison Avenue School in Oxford.

Eastman also said the district will save the $198,000 yearly rental cost of the Madison Avenue School when the new school is done. He also projected savings in transportation and administrative costs, since there will be a need for one principal as opposed to the two principals in place now.

The school site is 16.2 acres of land bordered in the front by High Street and on two sides by Hathaway Road and Meadow Lane. Railroad tracks border the back portion of the lot.

At a Sept. 16 public hearing, where the site was approved by a 58-0 straw vote, project architect Rick Malm said if the state school board approves the site, the design would be done by December of this year.

Malm, an architect with Lewis & Malm Architects of Bucksport, said the final plan would be ready in January and must receive planning board and state approval.

“We’ll take it to the state in February; it will be approved in March and then the local vote will be in May,” Malm said.

He said he hoped the construction bidding would be held in February of 2005 and occupancy in the spring of 2006.

jsmedley@sunjournal.com

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