MINOT – A plan proposed by the Maine Department of Education, restructuring the Child Development Services program, could add to space crunch woes at the Minot Consolidated School.
Union 29 Special Education Director Barbara Hasenfus told the School Committee on Tuesday night that Education Commissioner Susan Gendron’s cost-cutting plan would move the location for services for disabled children, ages 3 to 5, into local schools.
“The time line for this could be as early as the 2008-2009 school year,” Hasenfus said.
Space would be needed for staff offices as well as a treatment room for speech, physical, developmental and occupational therapy services.
School departments, according to Hasenfus, would also be responsible for transportation which, due to the age and size of the children, would require outfitting the buses with proper safety seats as well as having a monitor ride with the children.
The state would reimburse school systems for expenses associated with the plan within the school year in which they were incurred, she said.
Mindful that school Principal Margaret Pitts has indicated that based on current use, the school is short on space, School Committee Chairman Colleen Quint noted that there has been talk of requiring the institution of a statewide prekindergarten program for all 4-year-old children.
A month ago, Pitts received the go-ahead to explore the cost of a modular addition to the Minot Consolidated School. At the time, she noted that while school enrollment has held fairly constant over the last decade, the needs of the students and the school’s offerings have changed.
As part of his report, Assistant Superintendent Marc Gendron gave School Committee members budgetary proposal quotes to meet Pitts’ parameters for dealing with existing space deficiencies. Option prices ranged from $80,000 to $828,000. The low estimate would be for a 28-by-68-foot double-wide classroom, delivered, which for another $60,000 could be fully set up to include the concrete pad, water, sewer, fire alarm connection and handicap ramps and two sets of egress steps. On the high end, the estimate would cover an 84-by-68-foot modular complex with four classrooms, two small offices, a nurse’s office, restrooms, a janitor’s closet and a connecting corridor to the gymnasium.
In other business, School Committee members Larry Bates and Colleen Quint announced they will not be running for re-election at March town meeting. Bates noted that the two have agreed to meet with the Community Club in an open forum at 6 p.m. Dec. 20 at the Minot school to explain what membership on the School Committee entails, with the idea of recruiting their replacements.
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