Calais explores pros, cons of consolidating schools

CALAIS – Bigger can be better – that theory was discussed Wednesday night as town and school officials explored the benefits of combining Calais High School with high schools in Baileyville or Eastport.

After about 90 minutes of discussion, the City Council and school board agreed to invite school boards and councilors from Baileyville and Eastport to a meeting in January to discuss consolidation.

Calais High School has 178 students. If Calais were able to combine resources with either the Baileyville or Eastport high schools, it would increase the number of students at Calais High School by 269 or 171 students, respectively.

Advocates of regionalization believe a larger high school would mean more subjects and a broader spectrum of extracurricular activities.

During the discussion, school board Chairman Regina Taylor said that while she favors regionalization, she believes it would be a battle to convince Baileyville.

Residents there fear their smaller population would be swallowed up by the larger community.

Eastport residents who favor regionalization have discussed combining schools with nearby Lubec.

Schools in Calais, Baileyville and Eastport are governed by unions. A union includes a single superintendent, with school boards for each community that has an elementary school.

Union 106 includes Calais, Robbinston, Alexander, Baring and Crawford. There is one high school, one middle school and three elementary schools.

The superintendent of Union 106, May Bouchard, said if the communities agreed to regionalize, they could create a union, but it would be an unwieldy structure because of the number of school boards it would create.

If the two communities decided to create a school administrative district, or SAD, for its kindergarten through grade 12 classes, there would be one superintendent and a regional school board.

If the communities decided to create a Consolidated School District, they would have a superintendent and a regional school board for the management of the high school. The communities would retain local control over their elementary schools.

“I’ve spoken with the superintendent in [Baileyville], and he has told me at this time they are not ready to regionalize,” Bouchard said. “Calais has the population and Calais would have the vote. The vote goes by student population. So Calais might have 10 members on the board, where [Baileyville] would have eight.”

A school district would not be a solution, she said, because it has the one-person, one-vote rule, which also is configured by population.

But a lack of teachers may force regionalization. In five years, teachers now in their late 50s will be retired, predicted Ellery Bouchard, the elementary and middle school principal.

Bouchard said there are not enough young people going into teaching to fill the shortage. “That is going to be one of the issues that might bring regionalization along,” he said.

Although only seven members of the public attended the Wednesday night meeting, there was one voice that everyone listened to, that of 16-year-old Meredith Royer.

Royer said she favored regionalization because she believed the two communities could combine resources to create a better educational environment.

“There is so much more that you can do in a regional school. There are more programs, there are more extracurricular activities, and there are just so many more options,” she said.

Royer said she had heard from teachers at the school who were opposed to the idea because they feared possible layoffs.

“The thing is, Eastport is short of teachers and Calais is short of teachers,” she said. “In a regional school, you could have more teachers and more options.”