Wellington to stay open

Houlton Pioneer Times Photo/Joseph Cyr
SCHOOL DEBATE — SAD 29 board chairman Liz Anderson, left, speaks to the crowd at Wellington Elementary School Tuesday, March 29 as Ray Freve, interim-superintendent, waits to address the group. The special meeting was called to discuss the possible closure of the school.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    MONTICELLO — Monticello residents were able to breathe a sigh of relief last week when the SAD 29 school board voted not to pursue closing the Wellington Elementary School for the 2011-12 school year.
    The move came after a nearly four-hour meeting held at the school, with the board seeing data on how well the students in the school are performing; the impact such a closure would have on the district; and hearing passionate pleas from parents urging the board not to close the rural school.
    During the lengthy special meeting, board members heard from a number of individuals offering their opinions on why the school should remain open. The one person the board did not hear a suggestion from was its interim-superintendent, Ray Freve. Freve said after the meeting that it was his recommendation not to close the school, but the board did not ask for his opinion.
    “Based on the statistics I read, I did not like the pupil to teacher ratio [if Wellington were closed],” Freve said. “I also did not like taking on the cost of renovations to HES. And I am always concerned about putting pre-K and kindergarten students on a bus for any more time than is absolutely necessary.”
    Freve said he was also concerned with disrupting a child’s school building, taking a kindergarten student and moving them to a different building, as well as how the current HES students would adjust to so many new students.
    “When you add it all up, I couldn’t justify it [the closure],” he said.
    The board unanimously voted to cease discussion on closing the Wellington Elementary School for the 2011-12 school year, which drew a round of applause from the audience.
    The approximately 60 people in attendance were passionate about the school. Some struggled to get their words out before breaking down into tears.
    SAD 29 has nearly 1,300 students from the towns of Houlton, Littleton, Hammond and Monticello. 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.
    Declining enrollment at Wellington School is what prompted the school board to instruct Freve to gather data on whether it was financially feasible to close the school. Wellington currently has 56 students enrolled at the school, as of April 4, spread out among four grade levels. There are four pre-K students; 17 kindergartners; nine first graders; 14 second graders; and 12 third graders.
    In his report, Freve showed enrollment at the school has fluctuated over the past 10 years. At the time the report was created, there were 55 students at the school, which was the fewest number of students in the past decade. There are now 56 at the school.
    During the past 10 years, the most students enrolled at Wellington were 89 in 2001.
    At the end of the current school year, the school’s principal, Nancy Wright, is retiring. Wright also teaches the first grade. Additionally, third-grade teacher Lisa Ponder is resigning at the end of the school year for personal reasons, leaving just two teachers in the building.
    One figure that was not presented was what the estimated pre-K enrollment would be for 2011-12, since the district had not yet held its registration night for parents.
    In comparison, HES currently has 409 students as of April 4. There are 80 pre-K students; 90 kindergartners; 83 first-graders; 75 second-graders; and 81 third-graders. HES’ enrollment has fluctuated from 352 students in 2000 to its current level of 409, the highest in the 10-year period.
    The data also showed that a number of Monticello parents were already sending their children to HES. SAD 29 gave parents the option of sending their children to whichever school they desire following the closure of the Littleton Elementary School in 2000. At the time that school closed, there were 76 students in the building.
    As of March, there were 21 students from Monticello that were enrolled in classes at HES. That number has grown steadily over the past seven years. In 2005, there were only four Monticello students attending HES. Additionally, 56 students from Littleton attended school at HES, while 29 attend Wellington.
    Several board members questioned why so many Monticello families were sending their children to Houlton, when they should be attending Wellington.
    “What is this town doing that 57 percent of your kids are going to Houlton?” board member Scott White asked. “To me that is the greater issue. Why don’t you as a community try to get some of your students back here. Then if this comes up again next year, you look more viable.”
    Freve said he could not answer why parents chose to send their kids to HES, but added he would contact those parents to get that information. He added the concept of “choice” was not a new one in education. In fact, Governor Paul LePage is a staunch supporter of choice.
    Some in the audience stated the reason for sending children to HES was because Monticello lacked sufficient daycare options once school ended for the day.
    “If you want to encourage parents to return their children here, it really needs to be an initiative by the board, since it was the board who allowed them to go [in the first place],” Freve said.
    Wright gave an impassioned presentation about the school.
    “We are here tonight because our district is facing budget challenges, not unlike those faced by many of us in this gymnasium,” she said. “Despite all the difficulties our school faces, our children have consistently matched or exceeded adequate yearly progress as defined at the state level. The achievements of this school are something to be proud of.”
    Wright said the threat of the school closing is something that has dogged the school for many years, and may be a contributing factor into why some parents choose to send their children to Houlton.
    Busing was another concern for parents who feared the lengthy trip to Houlton was too long for the younger children.
    Resident Cindy Peterson, a mother of two children who attended Wellington, said she saw her children “blossom” at Wellington. Peterson also taught fourth grade at Wellington before being transferred to Houlton Southside School.
    “I cannot say enough about teaching in a small community school,” she said. “The students are coming to us [at Southside] very well prepared.”
    She said even though she teaches at Southside, she chose to keep her children at Wellington and urged other parents to do the same.
    Littleton resident Ken Hamilton said his daughter cried when she heard they were considering closing her school.     
    During the meeting, Freve stated that the maximum savings to the district if they closed the school was $482,654. However, that savings would decrease based on the number of Wellington teachers who would be retained for new positions at Houlton Elementary School. He estimated that each teacher kept would reduce the savings by about $50,000, based on salary and benefits.
    Freve presented a detailed report to the board and audience members comparing the numbers at Wellington to HES, as well as how a consolidation could impact classroom sizes and teacher-student ratios if there were only one school.
    According to Dawn Dougan, the district’s curriculum coordinator, Wellington scored above the county and state average in reading and math from 2006-10.
    If the board had decided to close the Wellington School, a two-thirds majority would have been required for the measure to pass. It then would have gone to a town referendum. Residents of Monticello could have then voted to keep the school open anyway if they voted the proposal down at the polls.
    To be effective for the 2011-12 school year, the board would have needed to vote at its Monday night meeting to proceed with the closure.
    “I don’t see enough information coming forth and enough time to make it all happen by the date you [Freve] mentioned,” White said.
    “I need more than a week, two weeks or a month to decide this,” added board member Paul Cleary, a representative of Houlton. “I need to give these people due process and investigate every option before I can make this decision.”