WINTER HARBOR – Even though the grammar school here might lose as much as a third of its pupils when the Navy base closes in June, residents seem inclined to keep it running without cooperating with other towns.

A show of hands Thursday night at a public meeting at the grammar school indicated that at least 26 residents are opposed to pursuing the formation of a consolidated school district with Gouldsboro.

Only three people at the meeting raised their hands in support of the idea. More than 60 people attended the meeting, though many left before the straw poll was taken.

Some residents said that because the school, which has 57 pupils now, is expected to have only 33 pupils when the school year begins in September, they are worried consolidation might lead to busing all the pupils out of town and the school’s closure.

In 1997, before the planned closing of the Navy base at Schoodic Point was announced, the school had 140 pupils, according to officials.

“If you don’t have a school, you’re taking the heart out of the town,” Phil Torrey said.

Resident Bruce Torrey, who is not related to Phil Torrey, said residents should be willing to spend a little more money for Winter Harbor to run the school on its own.

“I want to keep the school open,” Bruce Torrey said. “I don’t care what it takes.”

Union 96 Superintendent Harvey Kelley, who oversees schools for Gouldsboro, Sorrento, Steuben, Sullivan and Winter Harbor, has said consolidation can help Winter Harbor with its shrinking pupil population and Gouldsboro or Steuben with their overcrowded grammar schools. He said Friday that he believes consolidation in one form or another is in the best interests of the pupils in Winter Harbor.

“I have some concerns about what we’ll be able to most effectively offer given the likely school population next year,” Kelley said.

Many at the meeting had questions about possible CSD organization that school board member Jeff Alley said could not be answered until the board pursued the idea further.

Rebecca Good, a teacher at the grammar school, asked Alley what criteria would be used to determine which teachers would be retained if a CSD were formed.

Alley said that has yet to be determined and depended on many other undecided factors, such as a CSD staffing plan.

Alley said with the smaller pupil population next year, some teachers undoubtedly will have to be let go.

“Financially, it’s not going to be feasible to keep the six teachers we have now,” Alley said.

He added that the school’s future population is dependent largely on who buys the Navy housing units in town after the Navy vacates the properties this summer.

Alley said the projected cost of $450,000 to $500,000 for running the school next year likely will result in an increase in property taxes.

Alley said he has been told by several residents that though the respondents to a 2000 survey favored by a 2-to-1 ratio investigating the possibility of forming a CSD, that doesn’t mean those in favor of such an investigation actually would vote to form the CSD.

Kelley said the sentiment of residents at a similar meeting in Gouldsboro earlier this week was less overt.

There was no straw poll taken of the people who attended the Gouldsboro meeting, he said.

“It was more of a question-and-answer thing,” Kelley said.