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Log inRockwood school not "viable economically"
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Rockwood school not "viable economically"
by Outspoken on Wed Nov 12, 2008 6:54 am
Rockwood school not "viable economically"
By Diana Bowley
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
ROCKWOOD, Maine — The Rockwood Elementary School will close in June 2009 unless this Unorganized Territory community has an influx of school-age children.
Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told parents and staff in a letter this fall that the school would close because of the steady decline in enrollment. The school, which has a yearly operating cost of about $150,000, now serves two children in kindergarten through grade five.
“It’s economically not viable to keep a school open for two children,” Gendron said Friday. In addition, she said, it is important pupils have a social group and interaction.
Although the school will close, it will not be sold in the event more families with school-age children move to the community, Gendron said.
“We certainly don’t want to find ourselves in a spot that we don’t have a school to reopen,” she said. Gendron said the facility could be used for community gatherings.
The news was not good news for principal-teacher William Folsom.
“I expected it, but that doesn’t make it easy,” he said Friday. Folsom began teaching at the Rockwood school in 1988. After leaving the position to further his education and to work as superintendent of schools in Greenville and Ashland, Folsom returned to Rockwood to assume his current position. He was in that position when the new Rockwood school opened in 1991 when more than 10 children were enrolled.
“We have to face reality up here,” Folsom said. “It’s just the numbers.”
Anne Ehringhaus, whose daughter Marta Ehringhaus is a first-grade pupil in Rockwood, said the small school has played an important role in her family’s life. “For us it made it so much easier to belong to this community,” she said.
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/93094.html
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTOS BY KATE COLLINS
By Diana Bowley
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
ROCKWOOD, Maine — The Rockwood Elementary School will close in June 2009 unless this Unorganized Territory community has an influx of school-age children.
Education Commissioner Susan Gendron told parents and staff in a letter this fall that the school would close because of the steady decline in enrollment. The school, which has a yearly operating cost of about $150,000, now serves two children in kindergarten through grade five.
“It’s economically not viable to keep a school open for two children,” Gendron said Friday. In addition, she said, it is important pupils have a social group and interaction.
Although the school will close, it will not be sold in the event more families with school-age children move to the community, Gendron said.
“We certainly don’t want to find ourselves in a spot that we don’t have a school to reopen,” she said. Gendron said the facility could be used for community gatherings.
The news was not good news for principal-teacher William Folsom.
“I expected it, but that doesn’t make it easy,” he said Friday. Folsom began teaching at the Rockwood school in 1988. After leaving the position to further his education and to work as superintendent of schools in Greenville and Ashland, Folsom returned to Rockwood to assume his current position. He was in that position when the new Rockwood school opened in 1991 when more than 10 children were enrolled.
“We have to face reality up here,” Folsom said. “It’s just the numbers.”
Anne Ehringhaus, whose daughter Marta Ehringhaus is a first-grade pupil in Rockwood, said the small school has played an important role in her family’s life. “For us it made it so much easier to belong to this community,” she said.
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/93094.html
BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTOS BY KATE COLLINS
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Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
