As Maine school districts face the “cliff” in coming years, when state aid to education falls precipitously as federal stimulus funding runs out, officials are considering some drastic steps to reduce expenses. They must. And one of those steps is to close school buildings.
It’s on the table in SAD 3 in western Waldo County, as well as in RSU 20, the newly consolidated district that joined the Belfast area system with that of the Searsport area. That both a newly consolidated district and a district that was given a waiver from the consolidation law are weighing school closures shows how dire the times are.
Other districts that have considered closing buildings or already voted to close buildings include SAD 41 (Milo, Brownville area), SAD 4 (Guilford area), SAD 74 (North Anson area) and the Harpswell area.
Closing school buildings — and typically, they are buildings that house elementary level grades — is a painful step. Often, that school is the last vestige of local education in the community. And closing schools invariably means longer bus rides for children.
But closing schools can mean substantial long-term savings. Heating, lighting, cleaning and repairing buildings each represents sizable budget lines. The other part of closing schools is the opportunity to reduce educational staff. Yes, that means merging classes. But Maine has one of the lowest teacher-student ratios in the country. Many schools have classes with fewer than 15 students. While no one wants to see that ratio rise significantly, there is room for combining classes.
David Connerty-Marin, spokesman for the Maine Department of Education, said there has been extensive research that shows educational results do not decline when class sizes rise, at least not until classes reach 30 to 35 students.
Consolidating elementary students in larger, centralized schools also makes it easier and less expensive to bring them specialty curricula, such as band and art. And it allows for more after-school activities.
Closing schools is a step that has been taken before. Many of Maine’s small towns, which today don’t even have elementary schools, once had their own high schools. Graduating classes of 50 students could no longer be justified economically, so SADs were formed.
It will be discouraging to see schools that were renovated and expanded in the early 1990s on the state’s dime now closed. They often become town offices or leased facilities by local nonprofits. Sadly, they tend to be underutilized. In some cases, towns might consider selling the schools for use as congregate housing, nursing homes or health care facilities.
Unless Maine sees a baby boom in the next few years, the days of small-town elementary schools arrayed across school districts has passed.