PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — At MSAD 1’s recent right-sizing hearing, the question came up: Should Mapleton Elementary also be on the table on table for closure along with other schools in the five-community district?
It’s a good question, but there are good reasons for keeping the community school open, beyond just the public sentiment, administrators said at the March 16 meeting.
“We have looked at that,” said Superintendent Brian Carpenter. “But we have to look at the bigger picture.”
Amid declining enrollment, MSAD 1 directors and staff have been analyzing options for “right-sizing” or consolidating the district’s buildings and planning for the long-term, including applying for state funding to build one or more new schools in the coming decade. Currently, they are taking community input on a conceptual plan to close Pine Street Elementary School in Presque Isle and repurpose current school buildings, which could be among the options for district officials and residents next year.
That plan would close Pine Street, move preK to fifth grade to the middle school, move sixth to eighth grade to the high school and repurpose Zippel Elementary to house administration, career and technical education, adult education and other offices. Mapleton Elementary would continue operating as the elementary school for most Chapman, Castle Hill and Mapleton students.
Carpenter said that Mapleton Elementary, while not operating at full capacity, is serving the three community well, and that it’s poised to continue doing so.
“Where are the people going? It’s not the city of Presque Isle. It’s Mapleton. That’s the growing community. That’s where the younger families are going, for multiple reasons: housing, taxes, and so on.”
MSAD 1 and Mapleton have a contract that requires a community-wide vote to close that school, in addition to a state-required vote. Mapleton Elementary is also an anchor and a uniter within the district, Carpenter said.
“I would venture to guess that if we were to close Mapleton, you would see those three towns leave MSAD 1. They are close enough to Ashland in some cases to go there, and they have enough fiscal capacity to have a K-8 complex and possibly even a K-12 if they wanted.”
Clint Deschene, assistant superintendent for business, put that another way: “You’d push them out by trying to bring them closer” in closing Mapleton Elementary.
“Mapleton, Castle Hill and Chapman, if they were a K-12 school in Aroostook County, their student enrollment would be larger than the majority of schools up here. They’d be big.”
Compared to other districts that graduate senior classes of less than 20 students, the three towns could have a high school with 200 students, Deschene said.
