With fewer students attending Edgecomb Eddy School, selectmen want to speak with the school committee about either boosting enrollment or closing the school and transporting students out of town.

Selectmen agreed September 6 to invite the school committee to their September 24 meeting at the town office, beginning at 6 p.m.

Smith said his savings projections could be low, because he calculated it last year based on 86 students. So far in the new school year Edgecomb Eddy has 81 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

No school officials were at the selectmen's meeting. The discussion started when resident Marilee Harris brought up the school's declining enrollment during the public comment period.

“I just feel like we need to say, 'what are we doing,'” Harris said. “I have a concern, but I don't know where to go with it.”

It makes sense to contemplate the school's future as fewer residents have school-aged children, Smith said. “Our demographic is getting older,” he said.

Board Chairwoman Jessica Chubbuck predicted the discussion would bring out “a town hall full of angry parents who don't want to close the school.”

However, some people are at least curious, according to Smith. He made last year's calculations after several residents began speculating how much the town might save by closing the school, he said.

To make the projection, he multiplied the student count by tuition costs, and subtracted the building's debt service, which the town would take on if the school closed.

“If it's not a school, (the state is) not going to pay a dime on it,” he said. Then he added in a cost estimate to transport students.

Selectmen said other area towns would likely welcome Edgecomb's students. “I think most (towns) would like to have them because it would help their numbers,” Chubbuck said.

Rocky Channels School District Superintendent of Schools Eileen King and School Committee Chairman Thomas Steele-Maley did not immediately return the Wiscasset Newspaper's messages.

Reached September 11, Edgecomb Eddy's dean of students Lisa Clarke wasn't sure of the potential financial impact of closing the school, but she said she believes the town would also consider the reasons to keep the school open.

“We feel we're doing everything we can to offer wonderful programs for the students,” Clarke said.

The school has made changes due to smaller class sizes, she said. Kindergarten and first grade are combined this year, and the fourth and fifth grades are combined for three out of five subjects.

Any plans for the school's future would not impact the current school year, Smith said. He didn't know if voters would be asked to consider any changes at the May 2013 town meeting, but if that did happen, the soonest they would take effect would be Fall 2013, he said.

Selectmen and meeting-goers mentioned several possible ways to increase enrollment and keep the school open. Those included revisiting the idea of adding seventh and eighth grades to the school, and recruiting foreign students whose families would pay tuition.

The school's current enrollment level might make the expansion to seventh and eighth grades more appealing to school staff and officials now, Selectman Jack Sarmanian said.

“They're aware they need to do something … Otherwise they're going to put themselves in jeopardy. We can't sustain this,” he said.

School Committee Member Cassandra Fabiano is hosting two Chinese students attending Boothbay Region High School this school year.

Having students from other countries at Edgecomb Eddy could increase revenue as well as local students' awareness of cultural diversity, she said in a September 11 interview.

Fabiano said she and the committee “wouldn't shut the doors” to any suggestions for increasing the student population. The committee might seek the town's help to research having seventh and eighth grades at the school, she said.

Asked if she was also willing to look at closing Edgecomb Eddy as a potential option, Fabiano said: “We're a very realistic board, and we would be taking into consideration the best interests of the town as well as the students.”