County officials consider Grand Isle school closing

MADAWASKA – The possibility of Grand Isle closing its elementary school next year and paying tuition for its students to go to Madawaska or Van Buren could assist either one or both of the those school systems.

Madawaska school directors discussed the possibility again Tuesday, after learning about a proposal that SAD 24 at Van Buren made two weeks ago to the Grand Isle School Department.

It was the second meeting for the Grand Isle school board to discuss its options. Last month, members met with the Madawaska school board.

The SAD 24 proposal, however, was much less expensive than the Madawaska proposal.

“We have not made a formal offer to Grand Isle because we have not been asked to do so,” Thomas Scott, Madawaska superintendent, said Wednesday. “The information we provided them with last month only included what the state rates are for tuition.

“There may be changes, and we are willing to sit down with them and talk,” Scott continued. “There have not been any negotiations yet.

“We will sit with them on a proposal when they make up their minds on a course of action for their children,” he said.

Grand Isle now has 73 children in pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Thirty-two pupils in pre-kindergarten through grade five are now educated at the Grand Isle Elementary School. The remaining 41 pupils, grades six through 12, are being educated at Madawaska and Van Buren.

On the surface, the SAD 24 proposal of charging Grand Isle $4,200 per child, which includes busing, is much better than the proposal received last month from Madawaska.

In contrast, Madawaska’s proposal was $5,055 per elementary school pupil, $2,528 for kindergarten pupils who attend school half a day for five days a week, $2,022 for pre-kindergarten pupils who attend half a day, four days a week, and $5,433 for students in grades nine through 12.

Madawaska’s proposal did not include student transportation. That cost was estimated to be another $35,000 per year.

Grand Isle residents, because of increasing taxes, requested last spring that other options be investigated to educate children of the town.

This year’s school budget at Grand Isle is $681,378. This year, Grand Isle has one of the highest property tax mill rates in the state at $39.75 per thousand dollars in property tax valuation.

The Madawaska proposal, it had been calculated, could save Grand Isle residents 11 mills of property taxes per year. The lower SAD 24 proposal could save taxpayers even more.

The student enrollment at Grand Isle has dropped. Two years ago the town was educating 91 children.

For both the Madawaska School Department and SAD 24, gaining the extra students would help out. Enrollments in their schools have dropped in recent years. This year’s enrollment in SAD 24, kindergarten through grade 12, is 485 students. Last year it was 526, a loss of 41 students

Scott said the school department had 814 students last year. Preliminary enrollment figures this fall listed 771 students, a drop of 43 students. Of the 771 students in Madawaska schools, 42 are non-residents and the school department collects tuition for their education.

In other business Tuesday night, the Madawaska board received a potato harvest survey which showed that 25 percent of the 450 students in grades six through 12 worked in the harvest or related jobs this fall.

Scott said 115 students worked during the two-week harvest recess. The figure is about average for the last eight years, in which 24 percent to 27 percent of students out for potato harvest actually worked the harvest or in a harvest-related job.

School directors also approved:

. Financial help for Ashley Beaulieu to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine next summer at Villanova, Pa. Beaulieu, a junior, plans to become a physician, and the program introduces high school students to medicine.

. A three-year technology plan for computers, computer upgrades, and network improvement at a cost of $437,000. The program would be for both schools, the central office and the adult education office.

. The enrollment of three foreign exchange students, two from Germany and one from France, for the present school year.

. The hiring of four coaches. Roger Cyr and Denis Levesque for wrestling, Darcie Morin for high school cheerleading, and Allen Lavertu middle school boys basketball.