By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — Facing an uncertain economic future, the issue of closing Wellington Elementary School in Monticello is once again being discussed by the RSU 29 school district.
The mention of closing Wellington Elementary School is a surprising one, since it was just two years ago that the district explored closing the school, before ultimately deciding to keep it open.
During the district’s finance committee meeting last Wednesday, it was suggested that the district should revisit its decision to keep Wellington Elementary School open.
“We have a lot of work to do in a short period of time,” said Fred Grant, finance committee chairman.
While the finance committee works on the 2013-14 budget, Grant said it would fiscally prudent for the district to look at budgets for the next three years as well.
One of the biggest areas impacting RSU 29 is the state’s proposal to shift the costs for teacher retirements from the state level to the local level. In years past, the state has paid for the district’s retirement packages as part of the Maine State Retirement System. Because of the uncertain economic times, the state is considering shifting those costs to the individual districts.
For RSU 29, the retirement expense is estimated to be $166,613 for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
“The state has been tricky with the recording of this information,” Grant said. “For our district, they are subtracting the change in our debt service, to lessen the impact.”
The district makes its final installment on Houlton Southside School this year, saving the district $224,405. Therefore, the state is saying RSU 29 will not be financially impacted by the added cost of teacher retirements, as many other districts will be.
Based on the initial figures, RSU 29 is looking at a 5 percent increase to its budget over last year, Grant said.
“What we need to do is get that figure down to a 2 or 2.5 percent increase,” he said. “That figure was picked to make it (budgeting impacts) more realistic. The goal would be then to get that figure down even further in the next two or three years.”
Closing Wellington Elementary was only briefly discussed during last week’s finance committee meeting.
“After looking through the (budget) information, there are a couple of things that we really, as a district, have to have a serious conversation about,” Grant said. “In order to get where we need to go, we need to put it on the table tonight and start talking about it. We have to seriously talk about closing Wellington. It’s something that would take time to do, but given the significant nature of where the state is heading with its funding, it (Wellington) is an expense we need to talk about.”
The measure is expected to draw considerable discussion at future meetings, however, since the last time this subject was broached, a special town meeting in Monticello was held, drawing passionate pleas from the community to keep the school open.
In the most recent enrollment figures, dated March 4, RSU 29 has nearly 1,364 students from the towns of Houlton, Littleton, Hammond and Monticello. Located about 13 miles from Houlton Elementary School, Wellington is one of two elementary schools in the district that educates pre-kindergarten through third-grade students.
Back in April, 2011, the school board gave serious consideration to closing the school. At that time, then interim superintendent Ray Freve proposed the district should look into the possibility of sending those students to Houlton Elementary School.
Declining enrollment at Wellington School is what prompted the school board to instruct Freve at that time to gather data on whether it was financially feasible to close the school. In April 2011, Wellington had 56 students enrolled at the school, spread out among four grade levels. There were four pre-K students; 17 kindergartners; nine first-graders; 14 second-graders; and 12 third-graders.
As of March 4, 2013, those numbers have remained about the same. The school has 58 students enrolled in the school, with 14 in pre-K; 15 in kindergarten; 10 in first grade; nine in second grade and 10 in third grade.
The school has one teacher for both pre-K and kindergarten, one first grade and one second grade teacher; and the third grade class is taught by building principal Cindy Peterson. Enrollment at the school has fluctuated over the years, with its highest enrollment in the past decade being 89 in 2001.
Houlton Elementary School in comparison has 428 students as of March 4. There are 81 students in pre-K (which has two teachers); 89 kindergartners, with five teachers; 95 first-graders, with five teachers; 83 second-graders, with four teachers; and 80 third-graders, with four teachers.
A number of Monticello parents are already sending their children to HES. SAD 29 gave parents the option of sending their children to whichever school they desire following the closure of the Littleton Elementary School in 2000.
As of March 4, there were 27 students from Monticello who are already attending HES. In addition, 30 students from Littleton attend the Houlton school. During the closure discussions in 2011, some Monticello residents stated they chose to send their children to Houlton because of a lack of daycare options during the after-school hours.
Back in 2011, it was stated that the district could save roughly $482,654 by closing the school. The board ultimately decided not to close the school at that time because Houlton Elementary School would not have been able to absorb all of the students without additional space, which would have cut into the cost savings.
Superintendent Mike Hammer said the district could explore re-arranging which grades are housed in each of the district’s three schoolhouses in Houlton to accommodate the additional students.
Such a plan could involve making Houlton Elementary School only for pre-K to second grade, while moving third grade over to Houlton Southside School, which would then become grades 3-5. Sixth grade could then be transitioned up to Houlton Junior-Senior High School.
“It’s worth having the discussion,” Hammer said. “We know there are certain costs that we can save.”
Grant said adding to Houlton Elementary School was an expense the district could not undertake, so the board would need to come up with a plan to make sure all of the students could be accommodated in the existing buildings.
“Realistically, it’s not something we wanted to discuss then,” Grant said. “We know Wellington is a great program, but if we are to remain financially stable over time, it’s something we have to talk about. The reality is, given what the budget projections show, we as a district have to make decisions about priorities. We need to start having this conversation.”
Any school closure plans have to first be validated by the Commissioner of Education. It then goes to a public hearing followed by a public referendum to see if the voters in the district approve the closure. It would take roughly two years for the process to be completed.
The finance committee is scheduled to meet again Wednesday (tonight) at 6 p.m. to further discuss the 2013-14 budget. That meeting is open to the public.
