MONTICELLO, Maine — One year after the school board voted to close the school and it was turned over to the community, town officials said earlier this week that after accumulating significant maintenance expenses, the building is up for sale.
Town Manager Ginger Pryor and Town Selectman Terry Wade both said in interviews earlier this week that the town feels they have no other choice than to put the building on the market.
“We’ve had a committee working for about a year trying to find the right plan for it, but nothing came out of it,” Wade said on Wednesday. “It is costing us about $24,000 a year to keep it open.”
Monticello is part of RSU 29, which also serves the communities of Houlton, Hammond and Littleton. The school was closed at the end of the school year in June 2014. The school board voted to close the school due to declining enrollments and rising expenses. Closing the school, which at the time served 66 students from pre-kindergarten through third grade, was expected to save the district $109,000 a year.
As a result, all pupils but the third graders from Monticello now attend Houlton Elementary School, approximately 13 miles away.
All the third graders from both the shuttered Monticello school and Houlton Elementary 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.
Wade said that there had been some interest from people who have wanted to rent one or two rooms in the building, but the committee decided not to do that.
“We didn’t feel that would work,” he said.
Pryor said that the town has continued to heat the building throughout the winter and to perform other maintenance.
“There is absolutely no damage inside,” Wade said.
He said that the town has listed the building with a commercial realtor.
“It is our hope that we can get that building in the hands of someone who can help get it back on the tax rolls,” he said.