ROCKLAND, Maine — The Regional School Unit 13 board voted Thursday night to close two elementary school buildings.
The board voted unanimously to close the Lura Libby School building in Thomaston at the end of the current school year. This proposal must still go to Thomaston residents in a referendum before the closure will be final.
Board member Jesse Butler of Rockland pointed out that while the building is being closed, the students, staff and program will simply be relocated within town to another building. Lura Libby houses students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
Those students, along with fifth-graders, will be taught at the Thomaston Grammar School starting in September.
Student from the grammar school will relocate to what is now the Oceanside High School West building in Thomaston, which will be consolidated as a single sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade middle school for the district.
The board also voted 9-1, with Rockland board member Donald Robishaw Jr. opposed, to close the Gilford Butler School in South Thomaston. That closure, however, will not occur until July 1, 2017.
Robishaw said there were too many questions about the Gilford Butler closure to support it.
Board Chairman Steve Roberts reminded the board that it will be dealing with next year’s budget in two months, and he expects there will be discussion about how the district cannot afford to maintain the number of schools it has.
The Gilford Butler School serves students in kindergarten through second grade, mainly from South Thomaston and Owls Head.
The proposed overhaul of the school district calls for relocating those students to the Owls Head Central School, which currently serves students in third and fourth grades for the two towns. There will need to be an addition to the school, however, to accommodate the additional students.
Residents of Owls Head and South Thomaston will also need to approve the closure at a referendum for this to be final.
If residents reject either closure, the schools would remain open but the towns would have to pick up whatever the additional expense would be to operate either of the buildings.
Superintendent John McDonald said that the board at any point can vote to reverse the closure or postpone it longer if circumstances dictate.
The referendum votes on the school closures are expected to be held between Feb. 9 and March 8.
The major points of the Schools of the Future plan proposed by the superintendent in October includes a single high school for grades nine through 12 at Oceanside East in Rockland and a single middle school for grades six through eight at the Oceanside West building in Thomaston.