HOULTON, Maine — For students in every building in RSU 29 in Houlton, it has been a time of change.
Most of the students who had attended the pre-kindergarten through third-grade Wellington School in Monticello began the year at Houlton Elementary School, after the decision was made to close Wellington.
All the third graders from both those schools were sent across the street to the Southside School, which had previously only served students in grades four through six. That move led to the sixth graders being moved up to Houlton High School, which at that point had only housed seventh through 12th grade students.
Although some parents and community members questioned the transition in the beginning, Superintendent Mike Hammer said in a recent interview that there have been few issues with the student body.
“So far, things are going well,” he said from his office at the newly renamed Houlton Middle-High School. “It has been working out nicely, and I think that is a testament to both our students and the planning put in ahead of time by our staff. Everyone is working together.”
The closure of Wellington School is expected to save the district $109,000 a year, and was made because of declining enrollment, the age of the building and escalating costs. The school educated 66 students by the time the doors closed in June.
The district originally drafted a plan to educate the Wellington students at Houlton Elementary School and shift the library and computer labs from the Houlton school to portable classrooms in order to make more room for the larger student population. School administrators eventually decided that they had the room and opted to cancel the portable classrooms in favor of the current plan.
Despite that action, concern still lingered among some parents about long bus rides for students who live in Littleton and Monticello, potential for overcrowding at Houlton Elementary School, or possible exposure to bullying, drug or alcohol use at the middle-high school.
Hammer said that to address the busing concerns, the district’s transportation and facilities coordinator worked to shorten and consolidate the routes as much as possible, and the district was trying to secure more buses. There also is a separate drop off and pick up point for the sixth graders, and they eat lunch separately from the rest of the school.
“We have had few parent complaints and we have had no reports of bullying,” he said. “As far as at Houlton Elementary School, that has been really positive. We have heard that there is more room to move around in there now. The transition there has gone very smoothly.”
The same is true at the Southside School, he said, with the biggest complaint being the lack of equipment on the playground. There are only a few tetherballs and swingsets, and Hammer said that the Parent Teacher Organization is working to see if they can remedy the situation.
“We will continue to move forward,” Hammer said. “But so far, things are working out.”