PARIS — The Elementary School Building Construction Committee met Oct. 16 for the first time since it diverged from its sister Oxford Hills Middle School Building Construction Committee last summer.

Early on, the elementary school construction committee was mostly populated by West Paris residents and educators, as the district had applied to the Maine Department of Education to replace that town’s elementary School, Agnes Gray.

The DOE placed the two Oxford Hills schools on its priority list for replacement two years ago.

Initially convening in July of 2023, the two committees met together to share information as the school board identified its priorities for modernizing its facilities.

Transitioning the middle school from seventh and eighth grades to include sixth grade in the future was one major decision facing the district.

The process for a new middle school has been straight forward. However, replacing Agnes Gray Elementary School in West Paris became fraught with complications and misunderstandings early on.

Last winter, the architectural firm attached to Agnes Gray, LaVallee Brensinger, relayed to Maine School Administrative District 17 that the DOE was unlikely, in their experience and by the department’s trend of promoting centralized rather than community-based school buildings, to provide funding to build a school for fewer than 100 students.

For the best chance of financial support from the state to build a new school, the district needed to consider a partial consolidation plan that would close its four oldest and least efficient elementary schools (in Harrison, Norway, Waterford and West Paris) in favor of one consolidated school housing 450 students.

As Oxford Hills communities, and especially West Paris, grappled with the possibility that its tradition of community education might be lost, the situation was compounded by LaVallee Brensinger’s building inspection of Agnes Gray that provided a wholistic view of an old building whose maintenance had long been neglected. With school board support, Superintendent Heather Manchester moved to close the school last winter and its students were forced to attend schools for the rest of the school year in other towns.

Four community conversation forums were held about new school construction last spring. One outcome of the meetings was that if stakeholders had to reconsider what replacing Agnes Gray would mean to the district, the elementary building committee needed representation from all eight of its towns.

Returning to the drawing board last week with newly appointed members, the elementary school construction committee established immediate next steps in the process.

Transporting students is a major hurdle that the committee determined needs resolution before prospective school locations can be identified. The likely scenarios for a new school – one for a community school and another for a consolidated school will have drastically different impacts on the school district at large.

A survey will be conducted at polling places Nov. 5 for updated community input, which the committee will review as it shifts focus to the design and footprint of a new school. The main question: are Oxford Hills taxpayers willing to fund a $25 million school for fewer than 100 elementary students with no financial assistance from the state, or does the district adapt to a consolidated school model?

To meet the state-mandated deadlines for developing new school plans, a districtwide referendum on building its next elementary school needs to happen by November of next year.

The committee is being tasked with developing plans that will periodically be reviewed and approved by the DOE’s construction directors.

The next meetings will take place Oct. 30 at 5 p.m. at Central Office.