Consolidating Buxton’s three elementary schools is one option that could spell the end for a nearly century-old Buxton school.
SAD 6 Superintendent Suzanne Lukas is expected to meet with state educational officials in about two weeks to discuss future plans for Buxton elementary schools. The aging S.D. Hanson-Frank Jewett elementary school complex in Buxton Center was rated second last spring on a statewide list of schools in need of help.
“They are on a special priority list,” said Scott Brown, school construction specialist with the Maine Department of Education.
School starts today, beginning the 93rd year at the historic Hanson School, built in 1913. It once served as Buxton High School. The adjacent Jewett School was built in 1953 with an addition in 1987. Now Hanson houses fourth and fifth grades, and Jewett houses second, third, fourth and fifth.
Hanson-Jewett has one principal and two separate buildings on one site. Brown said the main problems with the building are its age and the fact that students have to cross a driveway walking between the two buildings, endangering their safety.
Brown said he and two state consultants would meet with Lukas in Augusta to discuss options for a plan. “We need to start working together and develop a strategy that works,” said Brown, who declined to name, before meeting with Lukas, possible options the state was considering for Buxton’s elementary schools.
Cindy Hazelton of Buxton, an SAD 6 director, sees a couple of possible options. Hazelton, who is also the Gorham recreation director, said the state could recommend consolidating the three elementary schools in Buxton into one new building. The three would be Jack Memorial on Route 112, Eliza Libby in Bar Mills and the Jewett-Hanson complex. A new building would aid busing and ease food service costs, Hazelton said. But consolidation wouldn’t add a school administrator.
Hazelton said another alternative would be expanding the Jewett School, eliminating the need for Hanson.
Hazelton, who serves on the district’s building and facilities committees, said it would be expensive bringing Hanson up to handicapped accessible standards and installing sprinklers the building now lacks. She said the site size is limited, and the state has guidelines for acreage per student. Hazelton doubted the state would put money into rehabbing Hanson.
Sandra Plummer, an SAD 6 director who serves on the same committees as Hazelton, said the school district was waiting to get direction from the state. SAD 6 would have to look for a site if the state recommended consolidating the three schools.
She said SAD 6 has a wish list but is unsure what the state wants. “Of course, I would like to have a state of the art elementary school,” Plummer said.
If a new school were proposed, a building committee would include a representative from Buxton town government and a member from the community besides teachers and school administrators.
The state has money for a school project in Buxton, but SAD 6 officials don’t know how much. Any project would require a local match with money from taxpayers in Frye Island, Hollis, Limington, Standish and Buxton.
Whatever plan is developed, voters in each of the five SAD 6 towns would have to approve a project at the polls. “Voters will make the ultimate decision,” Plummer said.
Brown said a proposal could go to voters next year. It might be a referendum question in June.
SAD 6 would need the Hanson School at least for another three years. “These projects take a long time,” Hazelton said.
The school district took flak last spring from some Buxton selectmen and residents about disrepair of Hanson School. But it got a facelift over the summer. In keeping with the school’s original color, yellow vinyl replaced decaying faux brick siding, and the building’s windows have been replaced in the past two years.
“It’s buttoned up pretty tight now,” Hazelton said.
The future of the Hanson School building would be uncertain if SAD 6 no longer needed it. A gym added in 1951 could possibly be used for recreation. Hazelton said a parent-teacher association rehabbed Gorham’s former Robie School, which was “headed for a wrecking ball,” as a community center a few years ago.
The S.D. Hanson School, built in 1913, could be dropped from school rolls in a consolidation of Buxton elementary schools.Send questions/comments to the editors.
