Board passes resolution pertaining to the closing of the Marion C. Cook School

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    MILO — For the current school year SAD 41 enacted a district-wide realignment plan which included sending K-5 LaGrange students to Milo Elementary, all sixth-graders to the Penquis Valley School and opening two new programs at the Marion C. Cook School in LaGrange. “We have done a lot of talking as you know about the Cook School,” Superintendent Michael Wright said during an April 9 school board meeting.

    Last fall the Maine Department of Education (DOE) called SAD 41 after reviewing the district’s school information and said that SAD 41 had closed the Cook School. District officials did not feel they had closed the LaGrange building, as instead of shuttering the school it houses an alternate high school and a behavioral program. Wright had provided the school board with a Maine education and school statute which states “school closing is any action by the regional school unit board that has the effect of providing no instruction for any students at that school.”
    SAD 41 officials consulted with their legal counsel, who agreed the district has not closed Cook School as students there are receiving instruction. In a letter the Maine State Board of Education stated that board did not consider the special services and alternate programming to meet their definition of regular instruction.
    “Recently you said as a group we have got a lot of issues here so let’s move on and put this to rest,” Wright said, as the board met with its attorney in a 36-minute executive session concerning the closure of the Cook School during the March meeting.
    At the April 9 session Wright presented the school board with a 7-point resolution concerning the school’s closure. In the resolution SAD 41 officials’ disagreement with the DOE is stated as instruction continues to be provided and the DOE statute does not differentiate between regular instruction and other forms of instruction. The next point says if the DOE’s interpretation is correct, the school board finds that the Cook School is closed for lack of need because the school is not currently needed for regular instruction.
    The resolution states that the school board directs Wright to submit a lack of need report and cost analysis report to the commissioner of education for the purposes of triggering a school closing referendum vote in LaGrange.
    “The effect of this is we would submit data to the DOE to show what we have saved,” Wright said, a figure of about $340,000. “Once we get information back from the DOE we would call for a public meeting in LaGrange.”
    Wright said this meeting could be scheduled for late May. Near the end of June on the referendum ballot, along with the SAD 41 2014-15 budget, town residents would then vote on whether the community would be willing to fund the costs of keeping the school open for the next academic year or otherwise have the Cook School close.
    “We did talk about fighting this,” Wright said. He said the likely legal costs and precedent of the courts siding with the DOE in related cases led to SAD 41 officials deciding to proceed with the closure plan.
    “None of us want to do this,” board Chair Don Crossman said. “I think it’s important to realize this is not what we want to do,” Vice Chair Arthur Herbest said.
    School board member Leon Farrar said he would be voting “no” on the resolution, because he felt the DOE was not following the law in regard to the type of instruction being offered presently at the Cook School. Farrar was the lone no vote as the resolution passed 6-1.
    In other business, following a 13-minute executive session, the school board approved the transfer of Julie Royal to the teaching/principal position at Brownville Elementary. Royal is currently in her first year as Milo Elementary principal and she will succeed Lynn Weston, who is retiring at the end of the school year. Weston’s letter of resignation was accepted with thanks by the school board last month.
    Wright reported about 16.6 percent remains in each cost center for the current school year’s budget. “We know it’s going to be tight this year, as it is every year,” he said, with work on the 2014-15 spending plan having been started.
    The question of how much to use from the fund balance comes up every year, and Wright said, “ We are hoping to get a little more subsidy than we have in the past before pre-kindergarten numbers are up.” He added that on April 17 administrators will present their preliminary proposals for next year at a budget workshop.
    During the public comment portion of the meeting, Herbest inquired about the status of the Penquis Valley High School softball team after he said members of the community have asked him about the squad. “They are looking to come up with the numbers for it,” Wright said.
    Penquis Valley Assistant Principal Micah Grant said on the first day of practice eight softball players turned out, one less then the number that is needed to start a game according to the Maine Principals’ Association rules and below the ideal number minimum number of 10-12 team members needed for a full season.
    He said more players have been sought, but Grant, Principal Matthew Hackett and Athletic Director Tony Hamlin would be meeting to make an ultimate decision on the status of Penquis Valley softball in 2014. “It has not been finalized yet, but it’s not looking good,” Grant said.
    A decision would be made prior to the start of the regular season. Grant said beginning play and then having to suddenly cancel games, such as due to having fewer than the starting nine, could hurt the relationship between Penquis Valley and the opposing school moving forward.