By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON, Maine — It’s official. The RSU 29 school board is now officially looking at whether it is economically feasible for the district to continue running Wellington Elementary School.
The move came after considerable discussion from board members during Monday night’s regular meeting. The board voted 6-4, with one abstention, to proceed with a fact-finding effort on the impact of closing the school. Voting in favor of the measure were board members Scott White, Bruce Clark, Lori Holmes, Tammy Goetsch, David Loendorf and John Tribou. Opposing the motion were Sandra Henderson, Lauri Bartlett, Jennifer Johnston and Cynthia Hillman-Forbush. Sandra Wilkinson abstained from voting. Fred Grant did not vote as he was serving as vice chairman for the meeting.
“(Wellington School) is not the only thing being discussed as far as budget reductions,” Grant said. “Given the nature of the cuts that are presented (from the state) the impact to the district is significant.”
Grant, who also serves as chairman of the budget committee, asked the board if there was enough support to allow Superintendent Mike Hammer to begin the process of gathering information on the financial impacts of Wellington School.
“What we are deciding is do we want to go ahead with that process or don’t we,” Grant said. “A ‘yes’ vote does not mean we are closing Wellington. It just means we are going to explore what that impact would be.”
“I think this is going to give Mike (Hammer) a whole lot of work, and we’re going to end up with the same result,” Henderson said. “I really don’t think it’s going to save all that much.”
Tribou said the board should take a more progressive approach.
“We really need to be looking at what we are doing as a district in the long term,” he said. “As everyone knows, things are getting tighter in Augusta. We almost have to be visionaries and look at where we are going to be in two, three or four years. We have to look at the district’s long-term sustainability.”
Loendorf said without additional data, it would be difficult for any on the board to make the decision.
“The more we know the better,” he said. “It would make any decision easier.”
Located about 13 miles from Houlton Elementary School, Wellington is one of two elementary schools in the district that educates pre-kindergarten through third-grade students. Enrollment figures for Wellington, as of April 1, indicated the school had 58 students, with 14 in pre-K; 15 in kindergarten; 10 in first grade; nine in second grade and 10 in third grade.
The school has one teacher for both pre-K and kindergarten, one first grade and one second grade teacher; and the third grade class is taught by building principal Cindy Peterson.
Houlton Elementary School in comparison has 424 students as of April 1. There are 80 students in pre-K (which has two teachers); 87 kindergartners, with five teachers; 95 first-graders, with five teachers; 83 second-graders, with four teachers; and 79 third-graders, with four teachers.
Hammer said Monday evening that as many as 65 percent of the eligible students who live in Monticello are already attending school in Houlton and have been doing so for a number of years. The district gave parents the option of sending their children to whichever school they desire following the closure of the Littleton Elementary School in 2000.
RSU 29 has 1,343 students from the towns of Houlton, Littleton, Hammond and Monticello.
On Monday, Hammer presented data that indicated the budgeted cost per student for both Wellington and HES. The total Wellington budget is $357,966, while the total HES budget is $1,980,616. Based on this data, the per pupil cost to educate a student at Wellington School is $6,067, while the per pupil cost at HES is $4,649.
Two years ago, the district did a preliminary study on closing Wellington with then interim-superintendent Ray Freve. A public hearing on the issue was held in Monticello, where residents made a passionate appeal to the board to keep the school open. The board, at that time, ultimately decided not to pursue closing the school because the preliminary figures did not support it.
In that data Freve collected, based on the 2011-12 school year, it was estimated the district could save $258,044 per year by closing the school. Part of the reason those numbers did not pan out at that time was because Freve stated an additional building would be needed at HES to absorb all of the students.
Superintendent Hammer said the district could explore re-arranging which grades are housed in each of the district’s three schoolhouses in Houlton to accommodate the additional students without the need for any expansion. Such a plan could involve making Houlton Elementary School only for pre-K to second grade, while moving third grade over to Houlton Southside School, which would then become grades 3-5. Sixth grade could then be transitioned up to Houlton Junior-Senior High School.
Any school closure plans have to first be validated by the Commissioner of Education. It then goes to a public hearing followed by a referendum to see if the voters in the district approve the closure. It would take roughly two years for the process to be completed.
Even if the district goes ahead with its plan to close the school, voters in Monticello could vote to keep it open. The town would then be responsible for the entire cost of running the building. Monticello could also apply to the state to become a charter school.
In other agenda items, the school board:
• Re-elected Liz Anderson as board chairman and named Grant as vice chairman.
• Discussed a request from the town of Houlton to assist with the purchase of hockey boards for the Millar Civic Center. The school board took no action on the matter, but requested a formal written proposal be submitted from the town, outlining the costs of both new and used boards.
