About 50 paper hearts cover the Agnes Gray School in West Paris, now officially closed by SADD-17 district officials. Rose Lincoln

WEST PARIS – The boarded-up Agnes Gray School in the heart of West Paris stands as a painful reminder of what transpired a year ago. The abrupt closure of the town’s elementary school by the SAD-17 Superintendent sparked anger in this tight-knit community, leaving lasting emotional scars.

Eli White, chair of the West Paris Select Board, explained that the school’s closure came with the removal of all funding for the building. In addition, the district disconnected the fire alarms and drained the heating system.

“They’ve basically abandoned it,” White said. “They’re just now finalizing the legal steps to officially close the school. What they did last year was illegal. They wrongfully shut it down. We’re still in a lawsuit with the district – it’s ongoing.”

Although a bit weary of the fight, White, along with a group of about nine “Bobcats,” remains determined. They continue to meet with the hope of starting a non-profit to either preserve the school or find another use for the building if it can’t be saved.

White hopes that the ongoing lawsuit will draw attention from the Department of Education (DOE) and send a message to the school board: there are alternatives to simply following the superintendent’s directives.

“They got replacement funding and immediately began planning to build a new school,” White said. “Now, they’re saying it’s not necessary. It feels like they intentionally neglected the building, ran it down, and are now claiming it’ll cost $6 million to make it viable. And yet, they say we don’t need it anymore.”

For the students who endured years in a school in disrepair, this abrupt change is particularly hard. “West Paris students who suffered in those poor conditions will never step foot in a new school. We were used. We spent over 10 years in horrible conditions with the promise of a new school – As soon as we got approval, it was taken from us.”

The closure shattered a long-standing tradition. “We always understood that each of the eight towns would have its own elementary school,” White said. “The school was the center of our community – where we held Town Meeting, where neighbors gathered for school events.”

With the school shut down, life in West Paris has been upended. Children now have to travel out of town for classes, and the before- and after-school program has been squeezed into the cramped Town Office.

As for the Agnes Gray building, White expressed frustration over what he fears will be the town’s future: “In two years, they’ll offer us a building that’s falling apart – moldy, with a leaky roof – because they never took care of it. It’s heartbreaking.”