PARIS — Superintendent Rick Colpitts told the SAD 17 board of directors Monday night that Paris voters have approved purchasing the two district lots at the former Mildred Fox School. The transaction, he said, is expected to occur July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.
The majority of about 80 voters approved the purchase of the town lots for $80,869 at Saturday’s annual town meeting, but not before lengthy discussion in which the property was called everything from a “white elephant” to a “gold mine.”
The two lots provide parking and open space for the school building that is being turned back to the town by the Oxford Hills School District because it has no further use for it. The lots were acquired later by the school using taxpayer money from the eight district towns. Because Paris paid 14 percent of the cost to purchase the lots, school officials offered them at the assessed value minus a 14 percent discount.
Although there was previous discussion about using the property for an arts center or some other nonprofit endeavors, officials said Saturday they do not intend to “sit on” the property for long, because the best use may well be for the town to simply sell it.
During the brief board meeting, held after a 20-minute delay due to a lack of a quorum, the board also approved the three-year technology plan that was presented to the board at its June 1 meeting by Technology Director Michael Dunn. The board OK’d the creation of three pre-kindergarten positions, to be funded by a federal pre-kindergarten expansion grant, and approved nominations for other positions for the 2015-16 school year, including a middle school counselor.
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