Alexander voters opt to keep elementary school open

ALEXANDER – They had to give before they could get, to keep their elementary school open.

But when the chalk dust settled this week, teachers and voters in this Down East community had agreed that the kindergarten through eighth-grade school was worth keeping.Nearly 100 people decided to keep the school during a town meeting Monday night.

Located on Route 9, the five-room Alexander Elementary School, with its combined gymnasium and cafeteria, serves as a community center. When the school is not in session, the building becomes a community center for weddings and receptions.

It was built in 1987. Six years later, two classrooms were added, along with a library and two conference rooms.

At its peak, the school population was 103 pupils; there were 66 this year.

The school was built when Calais, Washington County’s largest community, was thriving. In the late 1980s, retail businesses were prospering and stores were opening. Calais real estate sales flourished, and it was difficult to find a good rental or an inexpensive house to buy, and Alexander became a bedroom community.

Then, the economic picture began to change. Canadian shopping slowed and stores closed. The ripple effect was felt in small surrounding towns like Alexander. A change in the state’s school subsidy formula placed an added tax burden on local property owners, and the Calais economic downturn forced many young married couples to leave the area in search of employment. That caused the pupil population in kindergarten through eighth grade to dwindle.

According to the 1990 U.S. Census, Alexander had a population of 475 people, with 152 of them under the age of 18. Although the population increased by 39 by 2000, that year’s census showed that the number of young people under 18 had dropped to 127.

The school committee explored several options, one of which was to start a program for 4-year-olds that eventually could bolster the number of pupils in the school and bring in tuition money from Baring, Charlotte and Meddybemps.

Another option discussed this year was to close the school and send the pupils to Calais. The tuition cost plus the heating and maintenance costs that would continue at the Alexander school building would be around $590,000. That would represent a savings of around $140,000 over the cost of operating the local school.

But the school’s educators agreed to freeze their salaries for the next two years and to pay a portion of their families’ medical insurance coverage. Union 106 Superintendent May Bouchard had nothing but praise for the teachers. “Some of these teachers are going to be paying up to $1,200 in insurance costs,” she said.

The town’s school bus contractor, Fred Wallace, agreed to extend his contract for three years and freeze the cost at $54,000.

Had teachers and the school bus contractor not compromised, Bouchard said, the increase to the town would have been thousands of dollars more in salaries and benefits. “No one wanted to see the school close, and everybody made an effort to keep it open,” she said.

The only entity that would not compromise was the state. The state’s allocation was $7,776 less than last year.

So the total 2001-02 Alexander school budget is $687,373, which is about 1.5 percent more than last year’s. The approved local share is $270,014, or about a 2 percent increase.

Voters agreed to spend an additional $64,000 with $44,000 coming from taxes and the other $20,000 from surplus.