ST. AGATHA, Maine – School officials in northern Aroostook County discussed revisions to a plan to merge MSAD 33, which serves Frenchville and St. Agatha, and Madawaska’s school districts together on Wednesday.
The suggested revisions will be sent to legal counsel. The committee, which includes officials from both districts, will then look over the final version before going to voters in each of the communities on Nov. 2.
The plan to merge districts is directly connected to MSAD 33’s unique opportunity for a new school. It’s one of several mergers Maine districts are considering as school buildings age and renovation costs rise.
The merger and regional facility would address several issues for both districts. MSAD 33 students are crowded at Wisdom Middle/High School after the fire at Dr. Levesque Elementary forced everyone under one roof. The merger would also help Madawaska address aging buildings. The town’s elementary school was built in 1995 and its high school was built in 1948.
One of the plan’s revisions would be to ensure that at least one person from each municipality attend meetings to establish a quorum. The school board of the merged district would consist of 10 members, based on the populations of each municipality. Five members would be from Madawaska, three from Frenchville and two from St. Agatha.
Committee members later in the meeting wondered if board members could represent their districts rather than individual municipalities. Ben Sirois, Madawaska and MSAD 33 superintendent, said he would ask legal counsel.
Under the proposed merger, the responsibility for existing school buildings would fall to the municipality in which they are located.
Officials are also considering adding the St. John Valley Technology Center, which is owned by MSAD 33, into the new facility. If it can’t be incorporated into the new school, then the Frenchville-based facility will continue as a separate entity.
Once merged, the reorganized district will be called RSU 33, Sirois said.
“We’re going to continue to use MSAD 33 as the current language, but when we move into the new school we’re leaving that behind and calling it RSU 33, so that there is a clear distinction,” he said.
MSAD 33 was just one of two districts in Maine to receive state approval for a new school. Both districts lost schools to fires. Frenchville’s Dr. Levesque Elementary School burned in 2021, and Dike Newell Elementary School in Bath was set on fire by an arsonist.
These two projects are likely the last in the state to be fully state-funded. Out of the state’s 600 schools, roughly 500 will require some type of renovation or replacement within the next two decades, according to the governor’s 2025 Commission on School Construction. The commission estimated that, conservatively, these projects would cost $11 billion.
Though the Frenchville project is to replace the Dr. Levesque building, it could become a regional school shared by MSAD 33 and Madawaska if voters in both districts approve merging this November. Officials in Madawaska had at first voted to send grades six through 12 to the new school, but earlier this year amended that vote to have all grades join the district.
The two districts in June voted to have Maine-based architectural and engineering firm Harriman lead the design and planning work for the new facility. The firm has designed hundreds of schools and has also done work on local projects at the University of Maine at Fort Kent and the Fish River Rural Health Madawaska Health Clinic, according to an update on the school’s official blog.
The districts are also accepting site requests for the new school. The requests, which are due by Sept. 7, ask for suggestions from landowners in the MSAD 33 and Madawaska region willing to sell 30 acres for the project. Architects and engineers will then lead a site selection process along with a subcommittee of local stakeholders.
That process involves a scoring matrix based on criteria including size, buildable area, traffic and pedestrian safety, and overall accessibility, Sirois said earlier this month. The recommendation would then be made to the full board of school officials from both districts.
Following the vote to merge districts, residents would also need to vote to approve the overall school construction project. If the vote to merge is rejected but the project is later approved, it would move forward but only for MSAD 33 towns.
Looking ahead, the reorganization committee plans to meet on September 16 to finalize the merging plan. Officials are also hoping to host a public hearing covering the entire project at some point in October prior to the November vote. A date has not been set.
