A special board meeting will be held 6 p.m. Thursday at Katahdin Elementary School to discuss and vote on a consolidation option that would see the district close Katahdin Middle-High School and send the seventh- and eighth-graders from that building across the street to Katahdin Elementary School. The remaining students in grades 9-12 would be bussed roughly 22 miles up Interstate 95 to Southern Aroostook Community School in Dyer Brook.
Under this scenario, a new school name, colors and mascot would be chosen for the combined high schools. The board unanimously agreed that it would put this question to a formal vote, but the past two meetings that have been scheduled for this purpose were postponed due to poor weather.
The consolidation proposal was brought forth by Interim Superintendent Mike Hammer at the board’s request back in October. The process of figuring out which direction the district would go began more than a year ago, when school directors decided an independent review of its infrastructure should be done. That study revealed varying issues with all three school buildings in the district.
According to Hammer, the KES building is in better shape than KMHS. The elementary building, however, is not without its flaws as a number of windows should be replaced in the near future; the parking area needs to be repaved; the athletic fields are in need of attention; and the septic system may need upgrading in the future.
Simply moving grades 7-12 from KMHS to KES was not feasible without adding on to the structure or using mobile classrooms, according to Hammer. Likewise, moving grades pre-K to 6 over to the middle-high school was not practical because considerable renovations to the building would need to be made, such as smaller bathrooms to accommodate the smaller students.
A kitchen would need to be constructed. Food for grades 7-12 is currently made at the KES building and shipped over to KMHS for breakfast and lunch.
The SACS building, however, is not without its structural needs either. The building which houses grades pre-K-12, requires a new roof and funds have been set aside for this purpose in previous budgets, but not enough to cover the whole expense. Windows, paving and exterior facade issues also exist at the school.
Declining enrollment in the district has had a compound effect, Hammer said. From October 2014 to October 2015, the district lost 45 students based on the most recent enrollment figures. There are 110 KMHS students, and 90 at SACS. The student-teacher ratio is about 12-1.
Several scenarios have been presented over the past few months, including closing all the schools and building one new facility, but most of those have been ruled out by the board as not cost effective.
The only scenarios still on the table for discussion are moving the seventh- and eighth-grade classes to KES and sending the high school students to the renamed SACS school or the district could continue to keep a status quo, maintaining all three buildings.
Hammer has previously stated he was not in favor of doing nothing, because it meant the district would not be able to bring educational programs to the students that are needed, since the district’s budget would likely need to be slashed considerably.
