What: Farewell to Mildred Fox Elementary School

Where: Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School auditorium

When: 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 17

SAD 17 saying formal goodbye to Fox School

PARIS – Goodbye Mildred Fox School. Or…maybe not.

As the community prepares to say goodbye to the old school at a ceremony Thursday night, officials are contemplating the building’s future.

“We’re looking at several options,” said Superintendent Mark Eastman who will act as master of ceremonies at the event that begins at 6 p.m. in the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School auditorium.

The Mildred Fox School, named for the longtime beloved teacher and principal who passed away in 1983, was vacated earlier this year after the construction of the Paris Elementary School on Hathaway Road provided much-needed modern space for close to 370 students from Paris.

The move left the Fox Elementary School, located near Market Square in Paris, and a rental building in Oxford known as the Madison Avenue Elementary School, empty. A decision on what to do with the Madison school was easy – simply get everything out and give it up when the rental agreement lapses on June 30. But what to do about the old Fox school, which is owned by the district, and its history, presented more of a challenge.

Officials agree that as a schoolhouse it was inadequate. The building had no cafeteria, no gymnasium, no art or music rooms. But it was a solid brick construction and a site that could house a number of possible new ventures such as school administrative offices.

Although officials placed the building’s future on hold for a few months while students and staff settled into the new school, ideas continued to surface, Eastman said.

Topping the list at the moment is the idea that the building might make a useful central office should the state decide that SAD 39 and 17 would make a good match under its consolidation plan.

“It gets us quite a bit closer,” said Eastman of the desire to have a central office that was more geographically close to both districts than the current central office in a rented storefront in the Oxford Plaza on Route 26.

But Eastman said that move brings up a number of questions such as whether the state Department of Education would compensate the district for work that would be necessary to reoccupy the building. In the past, the state has supported rentals and encouraged central offices to build outside of schools, explained Eastman.

The idea, he said, was to prevent central office from showing favoritism to one school by locating there, particularly in a district like SAD 17 where there are 11 school buildings to choose from.

A full-blown renovation would require the addition of an elevator to meet American Disabilities Act. And with needed heating and ventilation work, the renovation cost could rise to well over $1 million, Eastman said.

There are other options such as subletting space or even replacing the building.

“The board will take its time to see how consolidation works,” said Eastman.

Meanwhile, the community will pay tribute to the building and its namesake.

At the ceremony, Mary Lou Burns a member of the Closing Fox Committee, will introduce family members of Mildred Fox, who worked as a teacher and principal in the school for 50 years until her retirement in 1967.

Each grade, from kindergarten through six, will then present their class tribute to the school followed by a memory video presentation and the singing of the Fox School song.

“The event will celebrate the staff and students who taught and attended the school during the past 100 years,” said Eastman, who has met families who had as many as four generations attending the school at one time.

The community is invited to attend.