PARIS — SAD 17 administrators have moved into their new offices on the second floor of the Western Maine University and Community College Center at 232 Main St.

“We are in,” Superintendent Rick Colpitts told school board members meeting in the new space for the first time Monday night.

“The move is over. It feels like mid-August to some of the administrators,” he said.

The offices are next to Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School and were opened to the public this week. The telephone number will remain 207-743-8972.

The offices had been housed at the Oxford Plaza on Route 26 in space leased from Bob Bahre. The lease expired last year, but district officials received a five-year extension, Colpitts said.

SAD 17 signed an agreement with the College Center in mid-May to use the second floor of the building. The school district leases the building to the college for $1 and the college pays all the operational costs. Under the new agreement, SAD 17 will share the operational costs.

The move is expected to save the College Center $125,000 a year and the district about $40,000 the first year.

Furniture, records and other items had to be transported to the new offices and to storage space while the Oxford office was shut down for two weeks. Thousands of records, such as 70 boxes of former personnel files were boxed up and transported by Facilities Director Nelson Baillargeon and his team of custodians. 

Colpitts said on two of the hottest days of the summer, custodians used two trucks to carry materials over to the new office and haul them up the stairs when the elevator was temporarily out of service.

“We’re in and we’re happy. Things are going well,” Colpitts said. The settling in will be a process over the summer, he said.

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