PARIS – The Fox School Reuse Committee decided Wednesday night that it will hang on to the former elementary school building for now and lease space to reduce SAD 17 expenses.

It is anticipated that discussions will be held with the Oxford Hills Christian Academy, which has expressed interest in leasing part of the building on East Main Street off Market Square. Others who have indicated interested in space are Dr. Ken Hamilton, director of HOPE, which recently lost its home on High Street in Paris, and NPC-TV, which is looking for space to house a full-fledged studio. There is enough space in the two-story brick building for all three organizations should they be interested and negotiations are successful, officials said.

In the unanimous decision, the committee authorized SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman to lease space to tenants in order to eliminate the estimated $21,000 annual district cost in maintaining the building.

“The pressure is from the cost of oil. At this point, we need to try to occupy space with people interested in renting or we need to close the place,” Eastman said.

The school was shut down last year when students from the former Fox Elementary and Madison Avenue schools began attending classes at the new Paris Elementary School on High Street after a nearly five years of planning and construction. That marked the first time all kindergarten through sixth-grade students from Paris were educated together under the same roof since SAD 17 was formed about 40 years ago.

Since that time, the old school has been used for the gifted and talented office, storage, Title One office and teaching space, 21st Century grant office and an elementary Spanish teacher’s office and library. Several will relocated to the Guy E. Rowe Elementary School annex in Norway and one to Oxford Elementary School in Oxford, Eastman said.

Space would be rented at $3 per square foot to the nonprofit organizations, and they would be responsible for their own utility and other costs. The district would simply act as a landlord.

“We want to come out as close as possible with a revenue neutral situation,” Eastman said.

“There’s lots of advantages,” said SAD 17 board Chairman Ron Kugell of Oxford, a member of the reuse committee. “I think it’s a good move.”

Although the town of Paris has expressed interest in taking over the building, under state law the district is not obligated to give it to them until school officials determined that there is a lack of need.

Reuse committee members say they believe it may be several years before the state-mandated consolidation of schools and heating oil prices and other issues are resolved and a final decision on the building use can be made.