DIXFIELD – Dixfield Elementary School will be used for central office employees, social workers, tutors, special services personnel and others next fall, SAD 21 Superintendent Tom Ward said Thursday.

The plan to reuse the 1959 building on Nash Street across from Dirigo High School was part of the district’s application for state money to pay for the $14 million elementary school being built in Peru, Ward said. It is expected to be completed by fall.

“This was part of the approval process – how to use the existing space to get rid of overcrowding and to eliminate leased properties,” he said.

Others expected to be using the old elementary school include alternative education students, in-school suspended students, those exercising in the Wellness Center and, occasionally, five classes of high school students.

The SAD 21 Board of Directors approved the plan, Ward said.

“We all liked the idea,” SAD 21 Chairman Ben McCollister said Thursday evening, adding it will save the district rent.

The district leases several doublewide modular classrooms, including one at the middle school that will stay after the relocations. The district also leases space at the former Richardson Hollow building on Pine Street, which will no longer be used.

Ward said the state discourages schools from leasing property.

No major renovation work is planned at the elementary school. Instead, Ward said a little will be done each year under the maintenance accounts. The cost to operate DES is about $40,000 annually.

The lease costs are $62,000 each year.

The current Peru Elementary School, which will be closed and turned back to the town once the new facility is opened, operates on an annual budget of about $20,000, Ward said.

Reuse will also alleviate overcrowding at the high school. Ward said some teachers float between classrooms because they have no room of their own, and others must use space at the high school not intended for use as classrooms. Five secondary classrooms will be established in the elementary school’s 1991 addition, referred to as the East Campus of Dirigo High School, Ward said.

The district’s workout equipment, received through a federal grant and housed at the Richardson Hollow building, will be moved to the elementary school’s gymnasium, a move Ward said that should enable use of the equipment by the general public.

The district has a student population of about 966. About 360 attend the high school, 300 the middle school, and just over 300 at Dixfield and Peru elementary schools. Plans are to launch a prekindergarten program next year that would bring in about 30 children.