Work to begin at Jonesport on new MCSD office building

JONESPORT — The concrete slab foundation for the new Superintendent of Schools office building will be poured this week by building contractor Byron Carver Jr.

Carver said the building, including office facilities for Superintendent Bruce Crowley and his staff, should be completed by mid-June. Crowley supervises the Moosabec Community School District, including Jonesport-Beals High School, and School Union 103 with elementary schools at both Jonesport and Beals.

The new building would be owned by Carver and leased to the Maine Department of Education.

The building project, initiated about a year ago, was deemed necessary because the current office facilities in the rear of the Jonesport Municipal Building are too crowded. Records storage, according to Crowley, has become the biggest problem and the introduction of the computers in education has claimed additional space in the three small rooms that serve the two school departments.

More than a year ago, Jonesport’s selectmen announced that they were in desperate need of additional office space at the municipal building. They notified the MCSD to begin searching for other headquarters for the superintendent. The town office has no public meeting room for the selectmen, Planning Board and assessors.

Last September the MCSD School Committee approved a move for its district offices. The proposed relocation was intended to establish Crowley and his staff on the second floor of a new office building. The Department of Education, however, would have required that an elevator be installed for the handicapped to have access to the superintendent’s office.

After the committee and Carver considered the state’s requirements for access, Carver agreed to build only a one-story facility to accommodate Crowley and his staff.