Pulling into the driveway of her Charleston home after taking her children to school Tuesday, Beth Jordan turned off the ignition, sank back in her seat and voiced the feeling that had dogged her all morning.

“Something’s missing,” she said.

Dropping off 9-year-old Lauren and 7-year-old Brittney at Morton Avenue Elementary School in Dover-Foxcroft, Jordan recalled the crush of children and the teachers holding signs identifying themselves.

“There were just so many people! It was very intimidating. There’s just not the personal touch we used to have,” said Jordan, whose children attended tiny Charleston Elementary School until last year when the state decided it would not pay for repairs and the SAD 68 board voted to close the school.

“The state is going against the way Maine is supposed to be,” said Jordan, one of thousands of residents who lament the loss of the small, country schools that once defined rural Maine.

But those days are gone, probably for good, according to state officials who are pushing communities to explore the regional use of buildings and other resources in light of the dramatic decline in enrollment, especially in eastern and northern Maine. The carrot in some cases is state aid for school construction.

“We’re serious about this,” said Jean Gulliver, chair of the State Board of Education. “This isn’t just something to check off on a list.”

Census figures show the declines in population aren’t temporary, but are long-term trends and will affect the entire state.

Richard Sherwood, a demographer with the State Planning Office who has compiled projections for all school districts up through 2015, said the decrease in the number of childbearing women will be causing the population of students to spiral downward.

While enrollment in the early grades in some towns has been declining for several years, middle school enrollment is just beginning to decrease, and high school population will do the same in a few years, he said.

Meanwhile, Commissioner of Education J. Duke Albanese has been traversing the state urging school systems to “go back and have wider discussions” about regionalization.

The state is open to negotiations, but a small community looking at a construction project “really has to make a strong case” for its own school, he said.

Big vs. small

Superintendents disagree as to whether consolidation is right for their region. The debate is especially intense in central and northern Penobscot County where severe enrollment declines have prompted some officials to begin discussing collaboration and regionalization even without applying for state construction money.

The enrollment projections paint a clear picture, said Don Siviski, former superintendent of SAD 68.

“No one wants a community school closed, but it’s a reality that we can’t keep all the schools open if the population is dwindling. A lot of people don’t have the data, so it’s emotionally based. When the state planning office shows you the numbers, you go, ‘Oh my goodness, there it is.’ It’s an unfortunate sign of the times,” said Siviski who is now superintendent in Hallowell.

The figures in SAD 68 were clear. The Charleston Elementary School had declined from 96 to 59 pupils in a decade. The Morton Avenue Elementary School has grown to 350 pupils in the same period of time.

Both schools needed expensive renovations. It made more sense to fix the Morton Avenue School and close Charleston. In the long run the district will spend less money, and children theoretically will get a better-rounded education at the bigger school.

But not everybody agrees that bigger is always better.

How big is enough?

Matthew Oliver, superintendent of SAD 4 (Guilford area) said he isn’t interested in regionalization “beyond our district” even though enrollment has declined from 1,005 eight years ago to 862.

The district still offers comprehensive, quality programs, he said. “We’ve lost students since the early ’90s, no question. But we’re not at the point where regionalization [with other school districts] makes educational sense.”

But reorganizing from within has been a boon, he said. By combining five elementary schools into two this year, the district now can offer art, music and physical education to elementary pupils.

Merging services also makes financial sense, according to Oliver, who has formed a co-operative with area superintendents to secure lower prices on necessities such as heating oil, diesel fuel, bread and milk. The group is finishing plans to purchase custodial supplies, he said.

Keith Cook, superintendent of SAD 31 (Howland area), has found himself on the front line in the state’s effort to encourage regionalization. Last month the state put on hold plans to build a new high school while local officials explore the idea of merging with neighboring school districts.

The enrollment of Penobscot Valley High School in Howland has declined slightly to 235 in a decade. Even with the decline, however, “the indicators of success for our students are really very good,” Cook said.

The number who go on to postsecondary school is “right up there,” averaging around 70-72 percent over the last several years, he said.

Students generally report feeling well prepared for advanced education, and there’s a “sense of belonging” since everyone knows each other, he said.

Nor do future projections worry Cook. Even in 2008, when student enrollment at the high school is expected to be fewer than 200, “we can still provide a good education,” he said.

Role of numbers

Numbers shouldn’t drive regionalization, said Les Butler, superintendent of SAD 46 (Dexter area). It’s wrong “to say that the minute a school drops to a certain number is the magic target for consolidation,” he said. “It’s when we can’t provide the best education possible for our students.”

The district had hoped either to renovate the middle school or build a new facility, but the state is urging that a consolidated high school be built and that the middle school move into the existing high school building.

Butler said that while the number of high school students is down to 360, compared to 455 a decade ago, the school continues to offer a quality program with Advanced Placement courses, foreign language and “plenty of electives.”

On the other hand, Superintendent David Walker of SAD 41 (Milo area) feels keenly about what his small school is unable to provide. The high school now has 260 students and is projected to have around 175 in 2015.

“It’s now pretty much a prescribed high school program because there are so few electives,” said Walker, who would love to offer psychology, sociology, art and music. “We don’t have cross country, wrestling, football, ice hockey or swimming – what other schools around us have. There’s no chess club or travel club, the things you’d like to be able to offer kids,” he said.

“I tell people that kids connect with high school through those activities, not necessarily through class work,” said Walker, who is talking with neighboring districts about the possibility of building a regional high school.

Sandra MacArthur, superintendent in Union 113 (East Millinocket area), is concerned that when schools merge their philosophies may collide.

Schenck High School’s population has declined from 359 in 1992 to 211, and projections show it at 180 in 2010, said the superintendent whose district is studying possible consolidation with Millinocket.

The high school is doing OK the way it is, she said. “We know we can’t be a comprehensive high school. What we have to do is meet individual needs and have a solid core curriculum. We’re tackling the problem of declining enrollment and coming up with creative solutions.”

Research supports small schools, according to MacArthur. “When you drop down to 100 students or below, then you could be looking at consolidation or regionalization,” she said.

Heart of a town

Charleston resident Alberta Rich, 80, said there once were 11 neighborhood elementary schools “located all around the town.”

She attended classes in rooms in Higgins Classical Institute reserved for elementary pupils. In mud season a horse and wagon would come to take her to school, while in winter a bus would come rattling down the road to pick her up.

Rich has her own thoughts on the demise of the town’s last school. “It makes me feel very sad to see it close,” she said. “I feel that a town without a school – without the children – it takes a lot of the heart right out of the town,” she said.

The school’s closing came as a real blow to Beth Jordan and her husband, Glenn. They wouldn’t have moved to the community if it hadn’t had its own school, she said. Other young families may not either.

Unhappy about the longer commute and the larger classes at Morton Avenue, she can’t help but make comparisons.

“To go to school before was very natural,” she said, recalling how pupils would run “into the arms of the teachers” each morning.

Now, although the girls have adjusted fine, “it’s different – there’s a lot more people. There’s a longer line for lunch and a longer day for them. They’re much more tired. And it’s not as easy to pop in for lunch,” she said.

Each of Maine’s towns “should be entitled at least to an elementary school,” she said. Younger children, especially, need “the stability of smaller classes. And the hometown effect – I believe that definitely works.”

That’s why she has joined a committee headed by Glenn that’s seeking to withdraw from the district and open a kindergarten through grade five school in Charleston. Members recently sent a plan to the department to be approved and should hear word within 60 days.

“Whatever it takes,” he said. “We want our kids back. That’s the bottom line.”

Incentives studied

Meanwhile, the state is taking a closer look at the whole issue. The School Administrative Unit Organization Study Group, a legislatively appointed panel, is expected to convene next month to explore offering inducements to school districts that regionalize.

Incentives could be more state aid or preferential treatment in acquiring renovation funds, according to Department of Education spokesman Yellow Light Breen.

But there’s more to regionalization than simply sharing space, according to Superintendent Walker of SAD 41.

“One challenge for northern Penobscot County is how can we rally around a regional high school,” he said.

Brownville High School closed in 1944, but alumni still hold a meeting every summer, said Walker, a former principal at the town’s elementary school. Meanwhile, Penquis Valley High School in Milo, a product of regionalization, has been around for 35 years and is still without a formal alumni association.

“The next step will be [a school that includes] an even larger region,” he said. “Will it be better or worse? For me, the jury’s still out. But the reality is that I’m not sure we have a lot of choice.”