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GRAND ISLE – Residents of this small St. John Valley community are in the midst of a serious issue: The school board soon will decide whether to close the local elementary school.
Residents are divided on the issue. Some want to save the school to maintain their autonomy and save children from long bus rides, while others want to save property-tax money.
The property-tax savings are a considerable amount for the small community. It has been estimated that paying tuition for all students could save the town about $160,000.
Residents will have a chance to hear their options at a special information meeting called by the Grand Isle School Board for 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26, at the Grand Isle Elementary School.
On Thursday, March 1, residents will vote at a special referendum election on three options: if residents want to close the elementary school; if all students should attend schools in SAD 24 in Van Buren; or if they should attend schools at Madawaska.
The referendum election is the first one to be held on the future of the school.
The Grand Isle School Department was created in 1987 when the community withdrew from SAD 24. The community had been part of SAD 24 since the early 1960s.
“It’s like a poll,” Roger Gervais, chairman of the three-person Grand Isle School Board, said Wednesday of the referendum election.
“The future of the school will be decided in the next couple of weeks,” Gervais said. “Whatever is decided will be in plenty of time to make decisions for the new school year in the fall.”
Robert Hasenfuss, Grand Isle superintendent, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
Monday’s meeting will be one of several at which the fate of the pre-kindergarten through grade five school has been discussed.
Several meetings were held last spring and fall and an informal meeting, which the school board did not attend, was held last month.
The school board also has met with SAD 24 and Madawaska school officials several times in the last four months.
Gervais would not say how much money could be saved by closing the local school.
He said citizens would learn that Monday night. More figures are expected from Maine’s commissioner of education before Monday.
Gervais said the town is divided on the question.
The division is mostly along lines of residents who have children in the school and those who want to pay fewer taxes.
At issue is the education of 73 children. Grand Isle educates 32 children in pre-kindergarten through grade five in their own elementary school.
Forty-one other students in grades six through 12, are educated at either Madawaska or SAD 24 schools. The town pays tuition for the grades six through 12 students.
Grand Isle residents – because of tax concerns – requested last spring that other education options be investigated.
It was projected last November that Grand Isle could have one-time costs of $182,000 for severance pay, medical insurance payments and unemployment compensation for the nine employees whose jobs would be eliminated by the school’s closing, and minimal upkeep of the school building.
This year’s school budget is $681,378. It costs Grand Isle $5,798 per year to educate each child it has.
It had been calculated that local residents could save 11 mills of property taxes per year by closing their school.
This year, Grand Isle has one of the highest property-tax rates in the state at $39.75 per thousand dollars in property-tax valuation.
Both tuition proposals said tuition costs would cover all programs presently offered in the SAD 24 and Madawaska schools.
The two proposals also said Grand Isle would pay extra for services for one-on-one education for special- education students, or for education that would call for services outside their district.
For the Madawaska School Department and SAD 24, gaining the extra students would help out.
Enrollments in their schools have been dropping each year.
Enrollment at Grand Isle also has dropped. Two years ago, the town was educating 91 children.
This year SAD 24 has 485 students enrolled in K-12. Last year it was 526, a loss of 41 students.
Thomas Scott, Madawaska superintendent, said the school department had 814 students last year.
Preliminary enrollment figures this fall are listed at 771 students, a drop of 43 students. Of the 771 students in Madawaska schools, 42 are nonresidents, and the school department collects tuition for their education.
There are 372 registered voters in Grand Isle. Anyone not yet registered may still do so up to election day.
A birth certificate is needed to register, the town clerk said Wednesday. The town’s population is about 550 people.
On election day, Thursday, March 1, the polls will be open at the municipal building from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Residents also may vote by absentee ballot during normal business hours at the town office, prior to election day.
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