Harrison Elementary School’s enrollment is currently 177 students from pre-K to sixth grade. In a move to protect the community school, residents voted Tuesday to start the withdrawal process from Maine School Administrative District 17, which plans to eventually close the school and consolidate its students in a new, larger school that would likely be located in Norway. (Nicole Carter/Staff Writer)
Harrison drew a line in the sand when it learned its elementary school could potentially close and its students consolidated with 400 or more children from Norway, Waterford and Maine School Administrative District 17’s five other towns.
Now, with a 386-261 vote, the town has decided to leave the school district, closing the door on the educational grouping it has been part of for more than 40 years.
A referendum question on Harrison’s June 9 election ballot asked citizens if they favored filing a petition with the Maine Department of Education, authorizing town officials to expend up to $50,000 and produce a withdrawal plan that complies with the administrative and legal process to leave SAD 17.
With 60% voting in favor of separation it will now pursue an unknown path: maintain school district independence or join Windham, currently a single-town district.
If Harrison goes the independent route, its older kids would become tuition students of SAD 17, Windham or SAD 61 Lake Region based in Bridgton. Younger kids would stay at Harrison Elementary School.
One resident who revealed she had voted Tuesday to withdraw said her decision stemmed in part from her child’s experience going from Harrison Elementary to Oxford Hills Middle School, which serves more than 500 students and is located in South Paris.
“He had to get on the bus at 6:05 in the morning, to get over to the middle school,” she said. “It was an hour-long ride. He’d sleep the whole way (there), he’d sleep the whole way home. He got written up for it and I had to get involved with the principal, bus driver and transportation department.
At the age of 10, those experiences changed him profoundly, she said. “It was terrible.”
