FORT KENT, Maine — Emergency legislation is in the works to let a small St. John Valley town take over its elementary school and convert half of the building into a for-profit facility.
The bill, which has yet to be assigned a number, title or text, was proposed by Eagle Lake Democrat Rep. John Martin, and is in the legislation drafting office, Martin said Monday evening from Augusta.
“My bill would allow St. Francis to acquire the school [building] and then rent space in it for senior [citizen] housing,” Martin said. “SAD 27 would still keep rooms for classrooms and pay rent for those rooms.”
It’s a novel approach to a common problem facing small towns around the state — how to keep school buildings open in the face of lowering enrollments and rising taxpayer costs.
The St. Francis Elementary School is one of four lower grade schools in SAD 27, with the other three located in Eagle Lake, Wallagrass and Fort Kent. All secondary school students in the district attend Fort Kent Community High School.
With an enrollment of about 25 pre-kindergarten to grade five students, the St. Francis school, located about 20 miles from the Fort Kent Elementary School, has been a target for closing for about a year as the SAD 27 board looks for ways to cut costs.
At Monday night’s board meeting, Superintendent Tim Doak said the district’s walking away from the small school and renting space for classrooms could potentially save SAD 27 up to $80,000 annually.
Martin’s legislation, if successful, would not only allow the community to use the building for both a school and elderly housing, it would streamline the lengthy process by which a school district normally goes about shuttering a school.
Cindy Jandreau heads up the committee in St. Francis, which has been looking at ways to save its school since last summer. On Monday night, she said a straw poll taken during a town informational meeting two weeks ago showed overwhelming support for the plan and Martin’s legislation.
According to a preliminary study by an engineer, it will cost the town about $800,000 to convert a wing of the school into an eight or 12 unit housing facility for elderly residents, Jandreau said. She added that the cost would hopefully be covered by Community Development Block Grants.
“We don’t want our taxpayers paying one penny of that,” she said. “That is our big goal.”
The proposed facility would include efficiency-type apartments and come with medical and social services support, all run by an outside contractor, Jandreau said.
SAD 27 would lease three classrooms for $40,000 annually and supply the teachers and support staff for students.
Custodial and food preparation staff would be shared between the school and housing facility.
“It is really a win-win,” Jandreau said. “We are talking about shared services and programs like having the elderly and the students read to each other and other projects.”
Elderly residents from St. Francis would be given priority as future occupants of the new facility, Jandreau said, and local residents would be hired when possible for additional staff positions.
There are still many details to hammer out, Doak said, but on Monday, he told board members that he is very confident and optimistic this out-of-the-box plan can work to save a school and serve as a model for the rest of the state.
“I was at a meeting recently in Lewiston and was asked to get up and talk about this,” he said. “This is definitely a plan that can work.”
On Monday, Martin said his bill should be ready to go to committee soon and he anticipates the first hearing on it within a week and a half.
Because the measure is being introduced after the bill filing deadline, it is considered emergency legislation that will require a two-thirds vote in both the Maine State Senate and the Maine State House of Representatives to pass.
“I think this will pass along fine,” Martin said. “It’s a novel idea and something that can certainly be done in other parts of the state dealing with the same things as SAD 27.”
