WISCASSET

In unanimous agreement, the Wiscasset School Committee decided at a workshop on Monday to advance a plan to move some middle school grades to a wing of Wiscasset High School for the next school year.

The move would bring grades seven and eight to Wiscasset High School, which currently is used at less than 50 percent capacity, and would raise the student population at the school from 189 to 276 students.

The plan follows a Sept. 15 meeting where committee members voted 3-2 to close Wiscasset Primary School by the 2015-16 school year.

On Nov. 20, a public hearing will be held regarding the school closure in advance of a Dec. 9 special election for citizens to vote on the committee’s closure plan.

The decision to close the primary school was made following a report issued by interim Superintendent Lyford Beverage, which estimated closing the school would save the town $785,524, roughly $130,000 more than if the middle school was closed.

If the closure passes the Dec. 9 election, Wiscasset Primary School students will move to Wiscasset Middle School, and the middle school upperclassmen will move to the high school, though the middle and high school academic programs will largely remain separate.

“There is definitely plenty of room to house the seventh and eighth grade, and they would have their own section of the building,” said Wiscasset High School Principal Cheri Towle, who mapped out areas of the school that the middle school grades could move into.

Towle said that she had also talked with Wiscasset Middle School Principal Bruce Scally about scheduling, which had been a concern of parents at previous school committee meetings where school closures were discussed.

“We can alternate the bell schedule a little, but maybe have some different sounds,” or offset the bells for middle and high school students by five minutes, said Towle, so middle and high school students are not in the hallways at the same time.

In addition, Towle said, bringing middle school students to the high school will give advanced students the ability to take high schoollevel classes and will also provide access to foreign language classes at a younger age.

“You are also screening for maturity,” said Scally. “Part of the trick is to make sure that your scheduling process is porous enough so that … we have the ability and opportunity to move the child back” if the placement isn’t appropriate, he said.

Andrea Main, parent of a seventh grade student at the middle school, asked if middle and high school students — particularly high school upperclassmen — would be mingling before school and during lunch.

Towle noted that while middle school students wouldn’t be completely confined to one wing of the high school, scheduling would provide for minimal interaction with high school upperclassmen.

“We have very well behaved high school students. I don’t see them being the kind of students that would cause harm to our seventh and eighth grade students,” said Towle. “I think they would welcome them, and it would be a pleasant experience all around.”

Beverage, who has worked previously in school systems with middle and high school students that shared a building, said that he has not seen the interaction between these ages as being problematic.

“Very often the older kids have been the baby sitters for the younger kids coming up,” said Beverage. “Many of the seventh and eighth graders have siblings that are in the 9-12 population and we don’t separate them there.

“That isn’t to say that there doesn’t need to be a very specific management protocol,” he said. “But they are together a great deal already and probably the best supervision is provided by schools.”

Beverage further stated that the cost of moving the seventh and eighth grades to the high school would be minimal, as the rooms to be used were already equipped with most necessary items and furniture.

The public hearing regarding the closure of the Wiscasset Primary School will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Wiscasset Middle School, located at 83 Federal St.

THE MOVE WOULD bring grades seven and eight to Wiscasset High School, which currently is used at less than 50 percent capacity, and would raise the student population at the school from 189 to 276 students.

THE PUBLIC HEARING regarding the closure of the Wiscasset Primary School will take place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20, at Wiscasset Middle School.