PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — With five underused schools and the possibility of state funding for school construction and renovation, the communities of Maine School Administrative District 1 could have several choices before them this time next year.
Out of a more than $20 million budget, the district spends $2 million a year operating five schools that were built to house many more students than they do now, MSAD 1 officials said at a recent public forum.
“If we continue to decline in enrollment, eventually we won’t need all the space we have, which we don’t use today,” said MSAD 1 Superintendent Brian Carpenter. At one point there were 1,300 students at Presque Isle High School, while today there are less than 600, he noted. Over the last 30 years, the district’s enrollment has declined by an average of 1.5 percent each year.
Carpenter said he brought the issue of long-term facilities planning to the school board more than a year ago, and a committee has been analyzing the issue and options looking out five, 10 and 15 years.
As the same time, the Maine state government announced a new round of school construction grants for districts in need of new buildings and asked for districts to apply for new regional, grades 9-16 high schools that incorporate career, technical and higher education. The legislature is also likely to replenish a school renovation fund account that helps districts with funding and offers zero-interest loans for renovating school buildings.
District officials plan to apply for funds for new construction, renovation and potentially a regional high school. By next February, the state will announce which districts may be eligible and under what timeline.
In the meantime, MSAD 1 officials are taking community input on a conceptual plan to right size and repurpose current school buildings, which could be among the options for district officials and residents next year.
That plan would close Pine Street Elementary, move pre-K to 5th grade to the middle school, move 6th to 8th grade to the high school and repurpose Zippel Elementary to house administration, career and technical education, adult education and other offices. (Mapleton Elementary School would continue operating as the elementary school for most Chapman, Castle Hill and Mapleton students.)
Pine Street Elementary was built in 1954 and currently hosts pre-K through second grade. It’s running at capacity, but needs the most work of any school building, said Paul Saija, an MSAD 1 board member who helped lead the committee examining right sizing. The school needs a new roof and heating system, and a new roof alone would cost as much as $3 million, Saija said.
Following that plan of closing Pine Street and repurposing the remaining buildings would save about $200,000 a year but cost around $6 million to convert storage space and vacant rooms into classrooms, add bath rooms and state-mandated fire suppression, said Clinton Deschene, assistant superintendent for business.
Financing that would present its own puzzle and ideally come with state support through the renovation fund, he said. “If we bonded $6 million ourselves, the only school we could close is Pine Street. That guarantees us $200,000 in operational savings. $200,000 is not enough for us to meet the debt service payments.”
When MSAD 1 closed the Cunningham Middle School and built a new middle school in 2004, it was entirely locally funded and the savings from closing Cunningham paid for the annual bond debt, Deschene said.
That’s why the district needs to consider multiple options and have a conversation about what to do, Deschene said.
“Our district has lost enrollment, these schools were closed because we didn’t have enough kids for them, yet the high school remains unchanged,” he said. “SAD1 doesn’t feel it can go it alone this time.”
If the revolving school renovation fund receives funding, the district could receive help with the $6 million repurposing, with the state covering 65 percent of the costs and the districts 35 percent under a zero-interest loan.
The district could also receive funding for a new K-8 school, which could allow the high-schoolers to move to the current middle school.
New schools are funded at 100 percent by the state based on the district’s current enrollment, Dechene said. Most districts end up funding some additional construction, such as larger gyms or libraries, Deschene said. Caribou voters are devoting $2 million from local taxes to pay for added gym space and a music room at their new $45 million preK-grade 8 school.
The state government will be “scoring” school districts applying for the new round of school construction funding, and choosing 20 ranked by needs. The districts with the most need could receive funding within a couple of years, while the others could wait as long as 15 years, Dechene said.
The consultant who helped write the successful application for Caribou’s new elementary school recommend MSAD 1 apply based on building needs for Pine Street, Zippel and the high school, Deschene said.
“This could go many ways,” he said. One way, according to the consultant, would be that the state requires the district to close Pine Street, Zippel and the high school and consolidate into a new preK to 8 school and the middle school. “The state would maybe build use a new preK-8 school, and then we would have to, on our money, add a gym to the middle school and convert the middle school to a high school,” Dechene said.
Another option that district officials also want to pursue is the state funding for a new regional high school, which could cost as much as $75 million.
That kind of project has “never before been done,” Deschene said. The regional 9-16 high school is envisioned as a secondary and post-secondary learning center for at least three districts. The high school would offer career and technical education, as well as associated and bachelor’s degrees in partnership with the University of Maine and community college systems.
“We’re going to put that letter in if we can find schools that want to do it,” Dechene said. Letters of interest from school districts are due to the state Department of Education by May.
So far, he said, MSAD 1 has found only one other district willing to “tepidly try this” — MSAD 45 serving Perham, Wade and Washburn.
Among the other neighboring districts, “We’re waiting to see if any of them are interested,” Deschene said.
If MSAD 1 doesn’t receive funding for the renovation, new elementary school construction or a new high school, the district would face a difficult decision about going forward with its partly-empty buildings.
That could present a “silver lining,” though, Deschene said. “Someday, maybe, some other district is going to knock on our door and say, ‘Can we come to your high school?; And then we’d have the room.
The MSAD 1 board has already tried to start that conversation with other districts, Deschene said. “The comment is ‘Someday, when we have to.’ SAD 1 thinks today is a little bit closer to the day we have to than they probably do.”
