CANTON – By fall 2008, a new 300-pupil elementary school is expected to be ready for SAD 21 students from Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru. It’s now in the planning stages.
But between now and 2008, officials are trying to determine what to do about Canton Elementary School and its 44 students in grades kindergarten to four.
Superintendent Thomas Ward has scheduled an informational meeting for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, at the school, to hear and address concerns of Canton residents.
“We’re seeking feedback from Canton on how they feel about closing the school,” said Ward, speaking for himself and SAD 21 Consolidated School Board members.
The school is old and, because it sits in the flood plains of the Androscoggin River and Whitney Brook, the facility has been flooded periodically.
When the new school is built in Peru, Canton Elementary is to be closed, Ward said Friday afternoon.
At the May 4 meeting, Ward said, “We want to talk about all concerns and what solutions there could be. We need to hold this meeting because we need to know how everybody feels.”
The matter of closing the school came up at last Monday night’s school board meeting after directors approved moving Peru school’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders in with their counterparts next year at Dirigo Middle School in Dixfield.
“Ironically, that opens up four classrooms, which is what Canton’s needs are,” Ward said, about the possibility raised at that meeting that Canton’s students could be moved into the Peru school.
Kathy Richard, principal of SAD 21’s Canton and Dixfield elementary schools, said that next year’s projected enrollment at Canton is 44 students.
The pupils-per-grade breakdown is: Kindergarten, five; grade one, 15; grade two, 11; grade three, eight; and grade four, five.
Her budget allows for three and a half teachers. The fourth teacher is a half-time special education instructor.
“I can’t fiscally be responsible and hire a teacher for five students, so I’ve got to put some grades together,” she said Friday afternoon.
Richard has proposed splitting first grade into two classes, creating multi-grade levels of kindergarten and one; one and two; and three and four.
That idea met resistance from a dozen Canton parents last Monday night.
Christopher Wainwright, the group’s appointed representative, said they didn’t believe that three teachers trying to run four classes would be equitable to the students.
They also wanted their children to be in classrooms of their own grade.
Additionally, he said, the group is worried that some students would be rehashing curriculum they learned the previous year.
“There are some students that need it repeated because they didn’t get it last year,” Richard said.
“Canton students have the same curriculum as Dixfield; the same math kits, science kits, and social studies kits. We try to be as equitable as we can,” she said last Monday.
Wainwright said Wednesday that he remains unconvinced that Canton students are getting the same education and opportunities as their counterparts in Dixfield.
Richard disagreed.
“We really work to make sure that the school has everything that we have up here, and after-school programs, as well. I go out of my way to ensure this,” she said Friday at the Dixfield school.
As for closing the school, Wainwright said he doesn’t want to lose it.
“I’d like for my kids to go to school in town. I fought tooth and nail to keep the school in the past, because if we lose the school, we lose the town,” he said.
Last Monday night’s group, he said, was not advocating closing the school, but rather that SAD 21 convene a public meeting in Canton.
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