Amy Hediger, assistant superintendent of Regional School Unit 16 in Poland, speaks Wednesday at a public forum the need for space in the Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland elementary schools. Over 70 residents attended to hear a report by a special task force studying options. Eriks Petersons photo
POLAND — The three Regional School Unit 16 elementary schools do not have enough space, according to an initial summary of findings by the district’s Futures Task Force.
At a public forum Wednesday at Poland Regional High School, task force member John Hawley told over 70 residents from Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland that their K-6 elementary schools are “limited to what we have in space — we are maxed out in space.”
Hawley and Bob Klar, members of the task force’s Functional Capacity Subgroup, reviewed square footage and student populations for each of the buildings, citing Minot Consolidated School as the smallest elementary building at 23,000 square feet, with 226 students. Elm Street School at Mechanic Falls has 35,000 square feet with 242 students, and Poland Community School has 42,000 square feet with 442 students.
Under state guidelines, Klar said 140 square feet should be allocated for each elementary student in a school building. That means the 226 students in Minot should have 31,640 square feet and students in Poland should have 61,880. Students in Mechanic Falls should have at least 33,880 square feet.
Hawley said in an temporary emergency situation Minot students can attend Elm Street School, twice stressing the word “temporary,” to even out space across schools.
The space assessment for each school was part of the task force’s study to target major issues impacting the educational quality in RSU 16 involving building needs, student safety, staffing shortages, inequitable class sizes, special needs, and transportation issues.
Assistant Superintendent Amy Hediger spearheads the 22-member task force that includes town leaders, School Committee members, RSU 16 staff and residents.
The task force was authorized by the School Committee in May after a $5 million bond to update the heating and ventilation systems for the elementary schools failed by four votes in a districtwide referendum.
A break in a boiler plate at Minot Consolidated School early in the school year, which took several months to get repaired, triggered the referendum, after it was brought to the School Committee’s attention that Elm Street and Poland Community schools have heat and ventilation issues as well.
Shortly after forming the task force, members toured each of the district schools and spoke with building principals and maintenance department personnel.
Members also delved into documents encompassing class sizes, per pupil spending and demographics, transportation routes, capital improvement plans, and RSU 16 budgets since 2016.
Hediger said at the outset of Wednesday’s forum that the work of the task force is to address issues facing all students in the district, from prekindergarten to adult education, and not focus on a particular school building.
The group also developed four scenarios to address school building deficiencies which they presented to residents through a survey earlier in July, requesting residents to respond with a pro or con to each proposal:
Scenario 1: Keep three hometown elementary schools; fund them, staff them and fix them.
Scenario 2: Reduce the number of prekindergarten through sixth grade elementary schools to two; combine Elm Street and Minot, keep Poland Community as is and fund, staff and fix them.
Scenario 3: Reduce the number of prekindergarten through sixth grade elementary schools to two and reconfigure the space. For example, placing all district prekindergarten to second graders in one school and third, fourth and fifth grades in another, and moving sixth graders to Whittier Middle School.
Scenario 4: Keep three elementary schools and reconfigure the space, creating one for prekindergarten through first grade, one for second, third and fourth grades, and one for fifth and sixth grades.
Hediger said there are no plans to build a new school for all the prekindergarten through sixth grades.
“We need to do something now” with the current buildings, Hediger said.
Six more meetings are planned this summer to include evaluating elementary education opportunities not offered at RSU 16, assessing budget impacts for each scenario, narrowing down scenarios to two or three, and breaking down each plan by school building and calculating the funding required for each plan.
The final report to the School Committee is due in September.
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