By Stowell P. Watters

Staff Writer

After seven months of study, Sea Roads School, Consolidated School and Kennebunk Elementary School, will all remain open to students for at least three years.

Ten of the 12 members of the facilities reorganization committee, established after an October 2007 public meeting to discuss possible school closures due to low enrollment rates, voted to keep all the schools open.

At Monday’s Maine School Administrative District 71 (MSAD 71) School Board meeting, member John Sharood said the board would have to wait three years to close a school anyway, because of a reorganization law that states no school can close its doors within two years of the creation of a regional school unit.

“This is a moot issue for the next three years,” Sharood said. “But we can remain proactive, look at our options. This is a good start.”

Ten members backed the majority report offered to the school board in favor of keeping all schools open. Facilities reorganization committee member Laura Manning read from their report.

“Our final conclusion is that small, community schools with smaller classroom sizes offer the most beneficial learning environment for the student,” she said. “Students in small classes in the primary years have higher academic achievement.”

Minority report supporter Ed Geoghan called the reasoning behind keeping all of the schools open “strictly emotional,” but while the board recognized enrollment rates are low and some of the buildings are in need of repair, they agreed that now is not the best time to close a school.

Sharood said MSAD 71 is not the only district that has raised the question of closing a school prior to the upcoming consolidation. Before Monday’s meeting, the school board sought legal advice from the law firm Drummond Woodsum and MacMahon of Portland as to whether closing an elementary school was even possible. 

According to a memo from Rob Nadeau of Drummond Woodsum and MacMahon, the Legislature has repealed a statute that outlines the procedure for school closures. Nadeau was quick to warn the school board against moving forward with any closure plans.

“Until the Legislature corrects the error the Board of Directors may incur significant risks if it decides to close an elementary school,” Nadeua notes. 

Kennebunk selectmen could refuse to countersign the closure warrants, a resident could claim the district does not have the authority to close the school because of the repeal or the district might not be able to recover the costs of keeping a school open for a mandatory final year because the law that gives the district the right to bill the town has been repealed, according to Nadeau. 

“In the absence of statutory authority, we cannot predict how a court would decide these issues,” Nadeau states.

“There is no way in good conscience I could subject the school department to possible claims by moving forward,” Sharood said.