At a tense community meeting about potentially closing Swanville’s only elementary school, parents and teachers raised questions about transparency, a rushed process, and a lack of data to support the district’s claim that the move would benefit Swanville’s students.
At the meeting, held Wednesday night, Bob England, Regional School Unit 71’s interim superintendent, and Ashley Reynolds, the principal of the Captain Albert Stevens School in Belfast, presented the administration’s proposal to close Kermit Nickerson Elementary School at the end of the school year. The school’s 57 students would go to CASS in Belfast next year.
The move would save the district an estimated $450,000, England said. He added that the district could potentially raise another $90,000 if it leased the Nickerson school building to another entity.
Kim Sholes, a Swanville resident and parent of two, was one of several people in the audience to object to “vague” communication from the district.
The proposal to close the school was first brought up last week at a school board meeting. Soon after, the administration posted a notice for a community meeting that did not directly mention closing the school, but instead invited families to “discuss how transitioning students to a learning environment with expanded resources and supports can strengthen educational opportunities and promote equity for every child.”
Sholes was confused when she saw the flyer in a grocery store. “ I actually asked someone, what does this mean?” She said many community members “would have no idea what that was about.”
There was also confusion about the process by which the school might be closed. England told the audience that the school would not close unless Swanville voters and the school board approved the move. But he later said that the school board had the ultimate decision.
“It sounds to me like it doesn’t matter how Swanville votes. The board is going to make its decision. So I don’t feel really reassured,” Sholes said.
The Nickerson school currently only has grades 3-5. Since 2020, younger students have gone to East Belfast school. Many people who attended Wednesday’s meeting asked whether it would be possible to bring all elementary students from Swanville back to the Nickerson school.
But Assistant Superintendent Jessica Giorgetti said the school district has a minimum class size policy, mainly for fiscal reasons. Even if all Swanville kids were at one school, some of the grades might not meet the minimum size, she said.
Kayla Miller, parent to a third grader at the school said the proposal “felt very sudden, and very foregone.” she said.
She said she could understand that closing the school might make financial sense. But she pushed back on the idea that the change would offer students more opportunity, noting that Nickerson school has offered her son hands-on learning. “They were building a Viking longship today,” she said. “I have absolutely no complaints about the education he’s received here.”
When asked for data that would support the idea that Nickerson students would receive better education at CASS, the administrators were not able to point to anything concrete. Instead they touted the extracurricular activities that the school offers and its new handicap-accessible playground.
England repeatedly stressed that no decisions have been made and that Wednesday’s meeting was just a first step in the public process.
He said the Nickerson school building could potentially be leased to a private school that would provide behavioral health services to the district’s highest-need students. At last week’s school board meeting, a representative from Brett DiNovi & Associates, a behavioral health company, made a presentation about the company and said that if it were to reach an agreement with the school district to rent the Nickerson school it could offer its students services for less than they are currently paying.
The company operates programs in eight states including Maine. It has been the subject of several lawsuits in recent years, including over alleged gender discrimination and sexual abuse of a minor.