State mulls SAD 30 plan to close Lombard

LEE – The Maine Department of Education is considering a SAD 30 proposal to close Edith Lombard Elementary School in Springfield next year, school officials said Wednesday.

The SAD 30 board of directors wants to close the school because declining enrollment and increasing maintenance costs make it unaffordable, Superintendent Fred Woodman said.

“I don’t ever think it’s a good idea to close a school, and I don’t think anyone on the board is happy that they have to close the school,” Woodman said Wednesday.

“They really don’t want to, but what they have had to do is study the whole problem for a year,” he added. “They are looking at it long term and what their costs are and how the district’s going to come out of all this – stronger and hopefully better.”

The board voted 8-6 on April 13 to close the school for the 2005-06 school year, but it won’t happen unless Education Commissioner Susan Gendron signs off on it. Deputy Commissioner Patrick R. Phillips is studying the proposal, state school officials said.

Phillips did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Wednesday.

If the school closes, its personnel and pupils will be transferred to Lee-Winn Elementary School in Winn with an immediate savings of about $40,000, Woodman said.

Springfield residents will have a chance to vote to keep the school open, Woodman said. No date is set.

If Springfield opts to keep the school open, town residents will have to pay to do so – at least $289,798. That does not include maintenance costs for repairing a leaky roof and other failings, Woodman said.

An appraiser hired by the school system, James W. Sewall Co. of Old Town, told the board in an April 5 report that bringing the school to optimum condition would cost $900,000, Woodman said.

Of that, the company judged about $115,000 in repairs to be essential.

The SAD 30 Building Committee recommended closing the kindergarten-through-grade five school, which has about 67 pupils and six teachers, after several months of studying the problem. It had about 75 pupils and eight teachers about a year ago.

Committee members considered grouping some grades at Lee-Winn Elementary School in Winn, which might have saved about $175,000 annually, and moving sixth-graders to Lee-Winn and Lombard while keeping ninth-graders at Mt. Jefferson Junior High School, Woodman said.

But board members rejected those options, thinking that they were too costly.

The board does retain some hope for future use of the school, however. According to minutes of the meeting, board member Bernard Burbeck withdrew his motion to authorize Woodman to begin school closing procedures that would have shut the school permanently.

And school workers will keep the building at low heat through the winter to save it from further disrepair, Woodman said.

If the closure occurs, the building could be sold or given to Springfield or to another interest.

About 215 students from Lee, Springfield, Webster Plantation and Winn attend SAD 30 schools.