ROBBINSTON, Maine — Robbinston voters will decide Aug. 19 whether to keep the Robbinston Grade School open.
Some parents are concerned the approximately 40 students won’t have enough time to adjust if the school is closed and they have to go to an elementary or middle school in another town in just a few days, parent Abbie Rohde said. Classes begin Sept. 2.
The board of the Independent School Department, which oversees the Robbinston school, voted 2-1 on July 1 to close the kindergarten through eighth-grade school, according to Interim Superintendent Ray Freve.
“Our mouths just hit the floor because nobody saw it coming,” said Rohde, a member of the Friends of Robbinston Grade School, a group of about a dozen people who hope to save the school.
A petition signed by Rohde and at least 27 other people, representing 10 percent of the number of Robbinston residents who voted in the last gubernatorial election, was submitted July 27 in an effort to overturn the school board’s decision.
The petition triggered the referendum question that will be held next Wednesday on whether to keep the school open. About 45 people from the community of 574, according to 2010 U.S. Census data, attended a public hearing about the referendum on Aug. 5, according to Freve.
During that hearing, school officials presented budget information indicating the cost of operating the school at $890,738. If the school closes, the school department would save $95,981.16 this school year. The savings would increase the following year because Robbinston would not be responsible for expenses that include unemployment for the three teachers and six staffers losing their jobs, Freve said.
The town still would need to raise funds to pay for tuition to send students to schools in neighboring communities.
Enrollment at the K-8 Robbinston school has dropped from a high of 70 students in October 2009 to a low of 41 in October 2014, according to a fact sheet handed out at the hearing. Currently, high school students from Robbinston go to Calais High School.
After the July vote to close the local school, the Independent School Department arranged for transportation for the younger students to attend Calais elementary and middle schools. Parents can choose to have their children attend another elementary or middle school, such as in Perry, Baileyville or Machias, according to Freve, but they would not be provided transportation.
Regardless of the outcome of the upcoming referendum vote, “we have to make sure every kid has a school to attend,” the superintendent said.
In one of three letters sent to residents in the past several weeks, the Friends of Robbinston Grade School argue “the decision to close or not to close the school is much more than a decision about mill rates and property taxes. It is a decision about the vision we hold as a community and the value we place on the families, children and youth that live in Robbinston today and, hopefully, tomorrow.”
Rohde is trying to save the school but acknowledged it might not be sustainable long term. If the school does have to be closed, she said, she wants officials to “do it right” and wait a year to give parents, students and educators time to prepare for the transition.