LIMESTONE, Maine — Caribou Superintendent Timothy Doak proposed the idea of bussing Limestone’s High School students to Caribou at a Limestone Selectpeople meeting last Wednesday.
Selectpeople sat on the Limestone Community School’s auditorium stage while many RSU 39 board members watched from the audience.
Tensions ran high as Superintendent Doak presented this concept to a nearly packed auditorium of concerned Limestone residents.
“I’ll start with the cons,” said Doak, “because that is pretty much what everyone is worried about. There is a loss of community identity. That’s what hurts. You’re gonna lose your school. You’re gonna lose the Eagles. You’re gonna lose your school colors. That’s hard, and Limestone is not the only community struggling with this. There are many more in Aroostook County, western Maine, and the Downeast area.
“The other con is that we’re taking money out of the town. There is also a loss of social interaction within the community. When you come to a softball, basketball, or soccer game, there’s a sense of community there,” he added.
Doak then segued into the advantages of this consolidation.
“The perfect high school is one where you can sit down as a freshman, open up the course syllabus, and it’s like a menu for a restaurant,” said Doak. “Where you can look it over and say ‘I want to take drama. I want to take this advanced English course. I want to be in Future Farmers of America.’ and so on. To me, that is a great high school.
“Of course, money is also being saved. However, I don’t throw numbers out unless I know there’s an exact figure. Research has shown that it is more expensive to have a small number of students in a large school than to have a large number of students in a big school,” said Doak.
Luke Shorty, executive director of the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, said a few words regarding the Magnet School’s relationship with RSU 39.
“In 2009, we joined the RSU to help with costs for maintaining MSSM,” said Shorty. “Money made by the school goes back to the RSU for maintaining the building and other costs. We have been able to work out any extra needs we have very well with RSU 39. In the last four years, our population has grown by about 36 percent, and we’ve talked about how much square footage to lease from the RSU to meet that need.
“We may need another science space at some point, but we are definitely not at the capacity where we need to utilize the whole building. I see us being within capacity for the immediate future, however we may have to find ways to fundraise for another dormitory once we pass that point,” he added.
Audience member Robert Edgecomb made a few statements to the superintendent regarding the proposal.
“I think the fear in this town is the loss of community,” said Edgecomb. “You mentioned it very clearly earlier. Our school is our backbone. You lose your schools, then you lose your church, and then you are no longer a community.”
He suggested a more bold change … creating an entirely new regional high school for the district.
“The idea I’m looking at is that we wouldn’t be going to a Caribou school. I’m looking at other school consolidations from long ago. These smaller communities lost their school colors and everything that goes along with it, but they regrouped with a new school name, a new mascot, and new colors. Everybody felt like they were going to their school.
“I have some experience in this school, and everyone who came here from Caswell knows what it feels like to be a second class citizen here. That’s the fear. The fear is that we will go to another school and be second class citizens and that we wouldn’t have the same accountability in the process,” Edgecomb explained.
“These are great points,” responded Superintendent Doak. “We absolutely need to adjust our thought process to that of a smaller school.”
Art Thompson, chairman of the MSSM Foundation, made a few comments as well.
“If we ever got to the point where we wanted to farm out the high school, I’d be very much in favor of getting bids from Fort Fairfield, Presque Isle and Washburn,” said Thompson. “Presque Isle has about 40 more programs than Caribou does. We ought to look at this all very carefully and make the right decision. I’m just glad to see the turnout tonight. It’s overwhelming.”
The audience erupted into applause upon hearing Chairman Thompson’s closing remarks.
Superintedent Doak emphasized that this plan is still in its infancy and that he plans on returning in the following months to discuss further developments and also to give precise financial figures with respect to the consolidation proposal.
