Vienna, New Sharon residents show support for SAD 9 building plan

FARMINGTON — About 100 New Sharon and Vienna residents raised their hands Thursday night to support construction of a new elementary school in their area.

There are nine towns in SAD 9, but observers said Thursday night that only Vienna and New Sharon residents attended the hearing.

Overcrowding has become a severe problem at the New Sharon Elementary School, which serves kindergarten through grade six. Also, the school is not accessible to handicapped people, and does not meet several safety codes that have been established since the school was built in the late 1940s.

Last summer, the SAD 9 board of directors established a committee to find several sites where a new school might be built. Jordan Richards, chairman of the Site Selection Committee, said that five potential sites between New Sharon village and the New Sharon-Vienna town line have been selected.

In September, a preliminary concept application was submitted to the school facilities division of the Maine Department of Educational and Cultural Services. The division rated the district 10th in a field of 55 applicants. The district was told that budget constraints would not permit concept approval but the department stopped short of denying the project.

If the district does not continue planning for the project, the application would not be ready if state money became available. However, if the district does spend money to continue plans for the project and state funds do not become available, SAD 9 will have spent money with no visible results, the letter said.

Rutherford said that from the district’s perspective, now is the time for such a project. Construction of a new elementary school in Farmington has placed SAD 9 above a state-designated debt service circuit breaker. The state pays all construction debts above the circuit breaker. Below it, SAD 9 must pay approximately 25 percent from local taxes.

Rutherford said that if the project does not receive state approval this summer, most of the expense already incurred can be applied against the project when it ultimately is approved. “If we get to go to the state board I think … we would be approved,” Rutherford said.

An architect and a choice of two or three potential building sites will be selected this month. Another public hearing is planned for June at Mount Blue High School to determine the level of support for the project. A straw poll will be taken and the results included with the application to the state.

If the Board of Education approves the project, it will go to district referendum, probably in November, Rutherford said.

In the first of two straw polls required for the project, Rutherford asked voters Thursday night, “Do we support this project and urge the board of directors to go forward with it?” In a show of hands, the vote was 101 to 5 in support of continuing the project.