SALEM TOWNSHIP — SAD 58 directors agreed Thursday night that taxpayers would not support a proposal to create a single student campus to save money.
They reviewed the idea of building an elementary school next to Mt. Abram High School. Savings would come from staff reductions and other efficiencies. The model was based on closing elementary schools in Strong, Kingfield and Phillips.
“This would be a K-to-eight school, with all our elementary students coming to Salem,” SAD 58 finance director Luci Milewski said. “This would be a new building, but this would not include construction costs or debt service.”
Milewski noted that, instead of four school kitchens and staff, the district could support one or two on the campus. Instead of four libraries and staff, the district could pay for two.
Administrative costs could be cut by having one high school and one elementary school principal and sharing an assistant principal between the two schools.
Directors agreed the savings from closing the elementary schools would be offset by the costs of building a school next to the high school. Based on current figures, if the district had one campus it’s estimated it would save $861,527 annually.
However, paying off a new $10 million school would offset those savings.
At all past meetings, parents expressed support for keeping all grades in the district, rather than paying tuition for them to attend another high school, and directors agreed to honor that request.
Moving high school students to Strong would produce no viable savings, directors agreed at a recent meeting.
In 2010, architects from the Augusta-based Bunker and Savage design firm, had presented directors with a study that represented up to $4 million in repairs, changes and improvements if the district planned construction upgrades to Mt. Abram High School to put all students in one building. The problem, they explained, was not that the building was unsafe or in disrepair, but that many newer code requirements would necessitate expensive retrofits.
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