LEWISTON — As he did for the other city schools, Superintendent Bill Webster will meet with the Martel Elementary School community Tuesday night to talk about redistricting plans.

The short-term plan calls for about 220 elementary students to be moved to different schools as Lewiston’s student population continues to grow, and as this fall new classroom space opens up at McMahon Elementary School. Redistricting also is being proposed to create smaller classrooms and provide more schools with an equitable number of students from immigrant families learning to speak English, or English Language Learners.

Martel and Longley elementary students would not be moved this fall. But the long-range plan calls for closing Martel Elementary in five or six years, replacing it with a new grade three to six school for Martel, Farwell and Longley students. Martel prekindergarten to grade two students would go to Farwell.

The future proposal “is if and when the state agrees to fund a new elementary school in Lewiston,” Webster said. “With all that’s happening in Augusta, it’s hard to say where Maine is” on providing construction money.

In the last school construction list from the state 18 months ago, Martel was No. 8 and the first six were approved for funding. That means the next time, which could be several years away, it could be second. “But at this point of time there’s a temporary hold on the first six, and none have been approved for bonds,” Webster said.

For now, Webster is assuming that in five or six years Lewiston could receive funding for a new school.

When it comes to elementary test scores, Martel and Farwell scores are among the better in the city. Longley’s are worse. Mixing Longley students with two those in other schools will help all students, providing the same diversity ratios as the middle and high schools, Webster said.

The state test results are proficiency scores, or where students are performing. “If you look at the growth scores, the students in Farwell and Longley are growing well,” Webster said. The intent of merging the three schools for grades three to six would be to “mirror the diversity of the city at large. We think that’s the healthiest learning environment.”

Long-range plans call for the new grade three-to-sixth-grades school to have about 500 students. Seventy-six percent would qualify for free and reduced school meals, 21 percent would be ELL students.

The Longley school would continue to have 93 percent free and reduced school meals population, and 59 percent ELL. Longley would not close, “given the number of families downtown who do not have access to transportation,” Webster said.

Martel Principal Stephen Whitfield said future plans to close Martel are not an immediate concern for a lot of parents. “It’s a wait and see.” If Lewiston receives construction money in five or six years, by that time most current students would have left.

Closing Martel and creating a grades three to six school would achieve diversity “which wouldn’t be available to us if we just combined with one school or the other,” Whitfield said.

That said, there’s a lot of love for Martel and the old building, even with its deficiencies.

“The school works and it is a nice size,” Whitfield said. There are many parents who attended Martel and sent their children there. “There would be some sadness with it closing.”

But the state wouldn’t fund a new school unless it would hold 500 or more students. Martel has 320 students, and is at capacity with large classrooms.

Martel lacks modern bathrooms, has no art and music rooms, and uses the same space for cafeteria and gym, which limits when gym can be held.

“It’s programming types of things,” Whitfield said. “When I have special ed meetings they’re in my office. There are no separate conference rooms.”

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Martel Elementary on Lisbon Street.

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