SAD 29 board looks to discuss regionalizing services

HOULTON – It’s a topic that has been in the back of the minds of school officials across Maine for years, but no one wants to talk about it.

In the face of declining enrollment and greater difficulty funding programs, school officials often have been reluctant about openly discussing regionalization of school services among different school districts out of fear that such talk would create a furor among residents who would dread the loss of their district identity.

By consensus last week, the SAD 29 board decided it was time to start talking, however, and unanimously supported a proposal from Superintendent David Wiggin to hold a regional forum for all schools and communities in the Maine Applied Technology Region Two to discuss the future.

“I’d like to get the thought process going,” Wiggin said during the board meeting. “If our populations continue to decline as they are, we can’t continue to offer the level of facilities and support that we are.

“We’ve pretty much stretched the local tax dollar to the max,” he said.

SAD 29, which serves Houlton, Hammond, Littleton and Monticello, expects to see its total enrollment drop from about 1,336 last year to 1,125 by 2007-2008, a 16 percent decline.

Last year, the district closed the Littleton Elementary School because enrollment had dropped to the point where it was not prudent to make the extensive and expensive renovations needed to keep it open to serve a small number of pupils.

Similarly, four years ago in SAD 25, which serves the towns of Mount Chase, Patten, Sherman and Stacyville, voters approved the closing of four community elementary schools in favor of consolidating elementary pupils in one district school in the renovated junior high, after enrollment dropped to an all-time low.

Data from the state Department of Education prepared in October shows a comparable trend statewide.

According to that data, the state’s elementary school age population will drop below 100,000 pupils by the end of 2001-2002 school year, and continue to decline after that.

“It doesn’t bode well for the future,” Wiggin said, adding that waiting five years until there is a crisis would be too late to begin seeking solutions.

Wiggin offered no plan for what might be discussed at the regional forum, though he referred to the sharing of the services of a school superintendent as one example that has been discussed in other areas. He noted, however, that in any sharing arrangement, school districts would have to be prepared to make some sacrifices and compromises.

SAD 29 and SAD 70 in neighboring Hodgdon already share an adult education program and have a joint varsity hockey team. The two districts also are working cooperatively to address issues concerning the annual potato harvest recess.

Several years ago, SAD 25 and CSD 9 in Dyer Brook shared the services of a school lunch director.

“There are lots of possibilities out there,” Wiggin said. “But if there’s not a long-range plan to do something like this, it’s never going to get done.”

Board members agreed.

“Nobody’s going to want to give up any autonomy,” said Linda McCord, a Houlton board member. “The sooner we can start talking, the better it’s going to be.”

“The process has to start,” agreed Tom Moakler, another Houlton board member. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what’s going on.”

No date has been set for the forum, which still must be discussed by officials in other districts.