Says farewell to 27-year teacher
Amid declining enrollment and rising taxes, the School Administrative District 1 board of directors will be exploring the possibility of closing school buildings in Presque Isle.
At its last meeting, June 8, the SAD 1 board voted to move ahead with considering options for building closures, following months of “right-sizing” discussions by a building and grounds committee and a study of consolidation options by the administration.
Administrators, board members and teachers will be meeting this summer to discuss the issue and options.
Most likely to be considered for closing would be Pine Street and Zippel elementary schools, the district’s two oldest, in what would be a multi-year process requiring a two-third’s majority approval by the board, approval by district voters and a lengthy application with the Maine Department of Education.
“There’s a lot of work to this,” said Superintendent Brian Carpenter. “We have to have a plan for closing the building. We have to have a plan for what we’re going to do with the building afterwards. We have to have a plan for what classes are going to move, and what the reconfiguration is going to look like.”
A number of board members expressed an interest in considering consolidation options, in light of the demographic reality of a declining population and tax base in Presque Isle and the four district towns of Castle Hill, Chapman, Mapleton and Westfield. The board also recently approved a 2017 budget that would raise local property taxes 9 percent, mostly to pay for all-day kindergarten.
“If we keep supporting buildings that aren’t as full as they should be, are we going to have to turn around and look at reducing staff?” asked board member Robert Cawley, an assistant vice president at Katahdin Trust Co. and Presque Isle resident.
“We have to do something,” said Terry Sandusky, a retired social services director who represents Mapleton. “I can’t take the heat any longer over rising costs.”
Since 2000, SAD 1 enrollment has declined by more than 10 percent, and over the next five years, the right-sizing study estimates that SAD 1 enrollment will drop by more than 7 percent to around 1,675 students.
The analysis by Carpenter and Assistant Superintendent Clinton Deschene lays out a number of options for moving students around the district to maximize efficiency at the middle and high schools, which are operating at a little more than 50 percent of their full capacity.
One option they laid out would be closing Pine Street Elementary, which they estimate would save $217,000 annually in operation and debt service costs. Built in 1954, it is the oldest of the district’s four schools and currently operating at about 80 percent of capacity.
Closing Pine, by that option, would involve moving students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade to Zippel Elementary, which currently teaches third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. Those grades would be moved to the Presque Isle Middle School, joining the sixth-graders, while grades 7 and 8 would move to the high school.
Other options they’ve laid out include closing both Presque Isle elementary schools, with additions at the other sites or a even new elementary school sometime in the next decade. SAD1 last opened a new school in 2005, building the middle school and athletic complex near the Skyway Industrial Park.
Meanwhile, the Presque Isle High School is set to have asbestos removed from portions of the floor, which will extend the life of the 66-year-old school. Removal of school flooring containing material with the toxic fibrous mineral is set to be paid for by the district through a $557,000 loan from the state.
Once the material is removed there will be an air quality test, a multi-day waiting period and then the start of reflooring, said Carpenter.
It’s not clear how long the process will take. But areas of the high school that would normally be used during the summer will be moved to other school properties. Summer meals for students will be at the middle school.
Longtime teacher retires from district
At their last meeting, the SAD 1 board also said goodbye to Athena Hallowell, a second-grade teacher at Mapleton Elementary and 27-year veteran of SAD 1.
Hallowell was known for having a classroom that “runs like a well oiled machine” and “builds
genuine connections that go on long after her students have left the classroom,” said Dan Duprey, principal of Mapleton Elementary.
“I always wanted to be a teacher as long as I can remember,” Hallowell said.
In second grade, she fell asleep in class one day and her teacher let her keep sleeping. “She let me sleep, and I woke up after school had let out — it was a different time, of course — and I looked and she was at her desk. She said ‘It’s okay, I called your mom, go home, you’re fine.’ What I learned from her was because she let me rest, and I needed it, good teachers have compassion for kids.”
“I want my kids to remember me as someone who always was their cheerleader, and that’s why I’m making the exit now,” Hallowell said, explaining her decision to retire at a relatively young age.
“I’m going to miss you all,” she said of her colleagues. “But I’m going to miss the kids even more.
“I’m going to carry them and the lessons in my heart forever, even after Alzheimer’s, because research says that even in advanced Alzheimer’s, your deepest and fondest memories will remain. Being a teacher has provided me with my deepest and fondest memories,” Hallowell said.
