FORT KENT – The Fort Kent Town Council took the unprecedented action Monday night of recommending that SAD 27 residents turn down a school district proposal for the construction of a $139,600 office building for the SAD 27 superintendent.

After considerable discussion, the Town Council voted 4-1 against the school district proposal that SAD 27 residents will vote on Nov. 6 in a districtwide referendum.

The Town Council did not take a position on a separate SAD 27 referendum question involving the refinancing of SAD 27 leases for libraries at the St. Francis and Eagle Lake elementary schools.

SAD 27 includes Fort Kent, St. John Plantation, St. Francis, New Canada, Wallagrass, Eagle Lake and Winterville.

The issue was placed on the Town Council agenda at the request of Councilor Paul Bouchard.

“We need to take a look at this proposal involving the proposed superintendent’s office,” Bouchard said. “The leadership in SAD 27 has put this in front of us, and it doesn’t pass the straight-face test.”

“I don’t think that anyone in the district believes the school needs another building,” Councilor Laurel Daigle said. “I have not talked to anyone, and I have talked to many, who believes they need another building.”

“Choosing not to find space for the superintendent in our schools seems to be a problem,” Councilor Louis Moreau said. “Yet offices are found in the schools for other people. The three men are either former or present educators in SAD 27. They claim that the student population at Community High School will drop to 300 students, from the present 425, within a few years.

Peter Caron, an SAD 27 educator and also a member of the Town Council, felt otherwise.

“Should we as a [town] council recommend that voters vote one way or the other?” Caron said. “It should be in the hand of the voters.

“I really don’t know if it’s our business or responsibility to take action,” he said. “Let them make up their minds with all the information that is out there.”

SAD 27 Superintendent Sandra Bernstein was not perturbed about the vote Tuesday.

“This is a decision that voters will have to make,” she said. “Whether they choose to follow the recommendation of the town council is their personal choice.

“I would hope residents will attend the public hearing or get sufficient information on the impact of vote before they go to the polls on November 6,” she concluded.

The SAD 27 issues involve three facilities – two libraries and the superintendent’s office – which the district is leasing. The three leases cost SAD 27 about $1,100 a month each.

Residents will vote on two referendums. One will be for the renegotiation of the two library leases, and the second one is on the construction of a new building for the superintendent’s offices.

The two libraries are owned by development corporations in the two towns, and the superintendent’s office is in a Main Street building owned by George T. Quigley and Son, a building supply company.

Five years ago, the state changed the law on leased facilities for school districts. In fiscal 2008, the state will stop paying for leases of facilities for schools.

After 2008, school districts will pay leases entirely out of local money.

SAD 27 officials maintain that neither Community High School nor the Fort Kent Elementary School has room for the superintendent’s office. The two buildings are the only buildings in Fort Kent SAD 27 owns.

Until about 15 years ago, the SAD 27 superintendent’s office was located in the elementary school. Since then, the office has been in two different leased buildings.

The Fort Kent Tax Awareness Committee, made up of mostly Fort Kent residents, has taken the position that residents should vote no on the proposal to construct a new superintendent’s office on a lease-sale agreement.

Along with their arguments against increased costs for residents, they point to a 2000 recommendation by a University of Maine study commissioned by SAD 27.

One of the conclusions of that $5,000 study was that space will become available for the SAD 27 central office to be located in one of the district’s schools by the time the present lease on superintendent’s facilities expire on June 30, 2003.

A public hearing on the SAD 27 referendum was expected to be held Tuesday night at Fort Kent.