MADAWASKA, Maine — Officials from the Frenchville and Madawaska school districts will update the public Wednesday on a collaborative project in which they could merge as a single district.
The information session will take place at 6 p.m. in the Madawaska High School cafeteria. No votes or decisions will be made, said Superintendent Ben Sirois, who leads the Madawaska district and MSAD 33, which serves Frenchville and St. Agatha.
It will be the districts’ second public meeting to discuss consolidation. Earlier this year, the Madawaska School Department voted to send all its students to a proposed new regional school in a joint meeting with MSAD 33, amending an earlier decision to send only those in grades six through 12.
Voters would still need to approve both the regionalization of the districts and the new school project at separate public referendums in order for these changes to officially take place.
The new school will replace Dr. Levesque Elementary School in Frenchville and the Wisdom Middle-High School in St. Agatha. MSAD 33 was selected last year for the new facility along with RSU 1, which serves Bath, Arrowsic, Woolwich and Phippsburg. Both projects will replace facilities lost to a fire.
Dr. Levesque Elementary School burned down five years ago. Since then, PreK-12 students have all been packed into the Wisdom Middle/High School building, which officials say is not sustainable in the long term. Spare rooms are unavailable, band and art are both held in the same room, and students are using conference rooms for early college classes.
This also marks the region’s second chance at a new facility. The first regionalization opportunity occurred in 2020, but it was rejected because school officials in MSAD 27, which includes Fort Kent and surrounding communities, felt the proposed Frenchville location would negatively impact student services. MSAD 27 also opposed it because it would have paid just over half of the bill, among other reasons.
A site has not yet been chosen for the new project.
Discussion during the meeting will include the purpose of the project, a review of the organization plan, the school construction committee, and the next steps in the process, Sirois said.