Officials to move pupils out of Gouldsboro school Mold prompts relocation to Winter Harbor

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GOULDSBORO – Local school officials have decided to move pupils and staff at the moldy Gouldsboro Grammar School to neighboring Winter Harbor Grammar School, leaving the Route 195 facility vacant within the next few weeks.

Both Gouldsboro and Winter Harbor school committees Wednesday approved moving the 157 Gouldsboro pupils and the entire school staff approximately eight miles down the road to the Winter Harbor school, according to Union 96 Superintendent Donald LaPlante.

Union 96 comprises Gouldsboro, Winter Harbor, Franklin, Sorrento, Steuben and Sullivan.

LaPlante said Thursday the relocation is expected to occur before the end of the month.

The move is prompted by health concerns posed by the heavy presence of mold in the 47-year-old Gouldsboro school and by concerns over the amount of money it might need to fix the problem, according to the superintendent.

“We’re not actually closing the school,” LaPlante said. “We’re moving the student body because of health concerns we have.”

Allergies and respiratory problems at schools in and out of Maine sometimes have been attributed to the presence of mold in the facilities.

Estimates for addressing the school’s deficiencies range from $21,000 just to get rid of the visible mold to $1.5 million to address all problems at the school, which include poor air quality, malfunctioning boilers and substandard fire protection, the superintendent said. Because the school is built on bedrock, there is no way to improve drainage at the site or to guarantee the mold won’t come back, he said.

“We’re faced with an impossible situation in that respect,” LaPlante said.

How much mold may exist behind the walls of the school is unknown, according to officials. Attempts to remove mold from the school were made last summer, but the smell has returned since the school year started, officials have said.

Winter Harbor has the room to accept the Gouldsboro pupils because its school population has plummeted in the years since the Navy closed its base at Schoodic Point. The pupil population has dropped from 140 in 1997 to 27 this fall.

LaPlante said the Winter Harbor school has had up to 184 pupils – the same number it stands to house after the move – but that it did so without current programming requirements. Whether all of the pupils, along with all of the current programs requirements, can fit into the Winter Harbor school remains to be seen, he said.

Peter McKenzie, Gouldsboro School Committee chairman, said Thursday that the decision to move the students was not done lightly.

“I think it was a very hard decision, but the decision was made in the interests of the kids,” McKenzie said.

There has been talk between the two school boards about consolidating the two schools into one district.

McKenzie stressed that Wednesday’s vote, however, was not a vote to consolidate.

“The consolidation issue has to be a referendum vote,” the board chairman said. “It’s very sensitive. There are a few [Gouldsboro residents] who feel they are losing their identity [with the closure of the school].”

Jeff Alley, chairman of Winter Harbor’s school board, said Thursday that his board approved the move for neighborly reasons.

“If the situations were reversed, we hope the same would be done for us,” Alley said.

Winter Harbor pupils probably will benefit by having the Gouldsboro pupils in the same building, he said.

“It’ll be nice to have 15 or 20 kids in a classroom instead of six,” Alley said.

No one is losing their job with the move, according to officials. Some combined classes will have two teachers and all Gouldsboro custodians, food service personnel, teachers and education technicians will work at the Winter Harbor school.

Whether the two schools formally will be combined into one facility – complete with one principal, one budget, and governed by one consolidated school board – will be determined at a later date, according to officials.

New bus schedules will have to be planned and new lunch times will have to be worked out, LaPlante said.

Marielle Edgecomb, principal of the Gouldsboro school, said Thursday that because of the shrinking Winter Harbor school population, the two schools have worked to include Winter Harbor children on some Gouldsboro athletic teams.

With the move to Winter Harbor, school officials have decided the combined student bodies will have new school colors and a new school mascot for as long as the situation lasts, she said.

Nonetheless, the decision to move out of the Gouldsboro building has been tough for the community and for the school staff, she said.

“Right now, people are overwhelmed, but this is a staff that stands together,” Edgecomb said. “No one is happy about the situation. No one wants to move in November.”