Final decision expected on Benedicta school

BENEDICTA – In just a few weeks, students will walk through the doors of Benedicta Elementary School to experience their first day back in classes after the summer break.

It could be the last first day of school the facility ever hosts.

A decision about the future of Benedicta Elementary still has not been announced, but one is expected in the next few weeks, David Connerty-Marin, director of communications for the state Department of Education, said late last week.

Richard Moreau, director of state schools for the Unorganized Territory, announced in March that he would recommend that the school be closed at the end of the 2008 school year.

Moreau’s counsel regarding the school was passed on to Education Commissioner Susan Gendron, who is expected to make a final decision on the matter in the near future.

No additional public hearings are expected to be held before Gendron’s decision is announced.

Benedicta, which is home to approximately 225 residents, deorganized in 1987 to allow the state to take over the school.

By the end of the 2006-2007 school year, there were 20 pupils at the prekindergarten through seventh-grade school. When the 2007-2008 school year begins this month, the school is expected to house only pre-kindergarten through sixth-graders.

Moreau expects that the number of pupils will be down to 12 or so.

If the school does close next year, the pupils who vacate the facility are expected to be absorbed into Katahdin Elementary School in SAD 25, which is approximately 10 miles from the township in Stacyville.

Pupils from Benedicta Elementary now attend high school in the district.

During a public hearing in April to discuss the decision, Moreau repeatedly stressed that his decision to recommend the closure of Benedicta Elementary simply came down to finances.

Moreau said in April that the per-pupil cost of education at the Benedicta school was $16,788. In SAD 25, the per-pupil cost of education was $4,501.

It also cost more and more money to run the school building last year, according to Moreau. He added that the population of the area is getting older and the student population is not expected to grow.

Moreau has stressed that taxpayers in the Unorganized Territory pay into a state fund to administer services there, including education, so it is his duty to use that money as efficiently as possible for the education of children.

When the school faced closure in 2004, a number of parents formed a collective called the Educating Kids Locally Support Group and successfully lobbied state representatives, senators and education officials to keep the school open.

When Moreau announced that he would make the recommendation for closure, the declaration again drew the ire of parents and community members.

Some said they couldn’t understand why the state wants to close the school, since education costs in the Unorganized Territory are funded solely by property owners there. Funding does not come out of the state’s General Fund.

Moreau also acknowledged to the group that the projected savings to taxpayers will be “relatively minuscule” once the school closes.

Some expressed skepticism about the financial figures relayed by Moreau, and others had questions regarding the school’s population.

According to Moreau, there were five students who went to school in SAD 25 during the 2006-2007 school year who should have been going to Benedicta. Instead, they obtained a waiver to attend SAD 25. Gendron has the final say over the waivers, he said.

Moreau acknowledged at the time that if the five students who were in SAD 25 actually attended Benedicta Elementary, Benedicta’s per-pupil-cost would decrease.

Although many residents have maintained that they would like Gendron to personally hold a public meeting with them to discuss the potential closure, the commissioner is not expected to do so, according to Connerty-Marin.