GRAY – A recommendation to move fifth-graders to the Gray-New Gloucester Middle School from Dunn Elementary School in New Gloucester next year raised concerns among parents at a hearing Tuesday night.

About 60 parents and teachers attended the hearing. Parents of fifth-graders said they were concerned about the 7:30 a.m. start of classes and bus rides with high school students. They recommended the SAD 15 school board delay its decision scheduled for March 4 to give more time for input and possible solutions to the overcrowding at Dunn school.

“Give us a chance to be the voices for our children. No one is happy for this move,” said Carrie Carter of Gray, who asked the decision be put off for another year. “Give us a feeling that we are being listened to. This decision will impact us in six months.”

A Student Population/Facilities Study Committee of 11 members, including parents, school board members and school officials, has been meeting monthly since October to study the growing population at the school. It recommended grade five be moved to the middle school and the district keep two K-2 schools in each town and make Dunn a grades three and four school. It also recommended a transition team be created to address the change.

The school board is expected to discuss the issue at its Feb. 25 meeting in New Gloucester before voting March 4.

SAD 15 lost $300,600 in state subsidy for the fiscal year 2008-09 and has been warned of additional cuts for this year and next, said Superintendent Victoria Burns.

Due to the projected decrease in state money, the fifth grade move should be effective for the next school year.

Dunn School Principal Bruce Beasley said there would be enough time to make the transition for students and to plan the process.

When Gray-New Gloucester Middle School opened in 1989, it served students in grades five through eight for a decade. In the late 1990s, the Dunn school opened in a former Pineland Center hospital building for grades K-5.

Since Memorial School in New Gloucester and Russell Elementary School in Gray were renovated in recent years, Dunn school has served all SAD 15 students in grades three through five.