PARIS — A reformed Maine School Administrative District 17 Elementary Building Committee met last week for the first time since last winter to discuss construction of new school buildings. 

Working with the Auburn architectural firm Harriman, the committee plans to meet twice a month to continue conceptualizing and planning for a new school.  

Details about the new committee are available online. The deadline for interested parties to apply is tomorrow at the close of business. 

According to Heather Manchester, SAD 17’s superintendent, the committee has identified a half-dozen potential sites comprising 20 to 30 acres each, including the current Oxford Hills Middle School on Pine Street in South Paris.  

A year ago, the inaugural Elementary Building Committee was mostly seated with residents and staff from Agnes Gray Elementary School. At the start of the construction process, SAD 17 expected it would replace Agnes Gray, not consolidate schools within different towns. 

Considering that the Maine Department of Education’s funding will impact multiple towns and schools in Oxford Hills, SAD 17’s administration has issued a call for new volunteers to sit on the committee to ensure that all eight sending towns have representation. 

Two years ago, SAD 17 snagged two of the state’s 11 school building application approvals during the Maine Department of Education’s most recent cycle of construction projects two years ago.

The two projects the district aimed to build was a new middle school for Oxford Hills and replace the aging Agnes Gray Elementary School in West Paris.

Replacing West Paris’ 130-year-old Agnes Gray, has become fraught with overlapping challenges. First, by transitioning all sixth graders to a middle school, the district’s eight elementary schools will lose population and be deemed under capacity by the Maine DOE.

However, over the past two decades the DOE has essentially stopped any funding assistance for community schools educating fewer than 100 students. In fact, the last small school project approved by the state is SAD 17’s Hebron Station School. It opened in 2002 and has a current enrollment of a little more than 100 students.

To accommodate the student population of Oxford Hills Middle School, MSAD 17 had to split into two campuses in 2013. Currently students attend either the north campus in South Paris or the south campus off Pottle Road in Oxford. The school was selected for replacement by the Maine Department of Education two years ago. File photo

The DOE has clearly, if not officially, indicated it will only support school construction projects that follow the state’s model of community consolidation.

According to Lavallee Brensinger, the architectural firm acting as planner and state liaison for SAD 17’s new elementary school, the most likely scenario Maine DOE will accept is an application that consolidates prekindergarten through fifth grade students currently attending three of the district’s small and aging schools — West Paris, Harrison (about 90 students) and Waterford (about 90) — with students from Norway’s Guy E. Rowe Elementary School (410) into one new, centrally located elementary school.

Hebron Station School, Otisfield Community School (about 120 students) and Paris Elementary School (about 325 students) would remain open under a partial consolidation plan.

Potentially, some students living in Harrison, Waterford or West Paris might attend a community school in closer proximity to their homes and not the large, consolidated school.

SAD 17’s operations committee has projected that with sixth grade students transitioning to middle school, the remaining schools will be able to accept some students from other towns.

A centralized and consolidated school would be built to educate about 450 children between pre-K and fifth grade. Special education/day treatment students would also attend the new school, where special services staff would be able to serve their needs more equitably.

Guy E. Rowe Elementary School in Norway. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat

The pain of eventually closing traditional community school buildings has already been felt in West Paris, after the list of life safety and infrastructure problems became too large to avoid and led to Agnes Gray abruptly closing in the middle of the past school year.

Current estimates dictate a $4 million cost that would be paid for with local tax revenues and take at least 18 months to complete.

At an Aug. 27 meeting, SAD 17’s operations committee opted to not recommend school board approval of such a plan.

In Harrison, the Board of Selectmen already directed Town Manager Cass Newell to research options for that town to secede from SAD 17.

In West Paris, residents have proposed leaving SAD 17 for SAD 44, sending elementary students to Woodstock Elementary School in nearby Bryant Pond and its middle and high school kids to Telstar High and Middle schools in Bethel.

Neither town has taken any formal steps to leave the Oxford Hills School District.

A 2023 districtwide inspection of Oxford Hills’ elementary schools indicates Waterford Memorial, Guy E. Rowe and Harrison Elementary schools are in below average or worse condition.

While it remains unknown what percentage of a consolidated school serving 450 students Maine DOE would be willing to fund, it is likely that a substantial portion of the estimated $75 million cost would be covered.

If SAD 17 residents vote to reject consolidation and continue the tradition of individual community schools, the cost to replace Agnes Gray could be up to $30 million. It would be solely up to Oxford Hills taxpayers to fund, and the district would still face the eventual expense to replace its other older schools in Harrison, Waterford and Norway.