An Edgecomb Eddy School parent has told the Edgecomb Selectmen he is “very concerned” about the board's recent discussion on the school's future.

The proper forum would have been during this year's budget process or at town meeting, Tom Abello of Dodge Road wrote to selectmen in a September 15 email. “Your discussion … runs counter to that,” Abello wrote.

Board members had not planned to talk about the school at their September 10 meeting. Their discussion of potential options for its future came during the meeting's public comment period, after a resident cited the school's 81-student enrollment.

Closing the school would save the town at least about $134,000 a year, Selectman Stuart Smith said. However, they also discussed possible ways to keep it open, such as adding seventh and eighth grades and seeking foreign students.

Selectmen then decided to invite the school committee to the board's September 24 meeting at town hall to discuss either boosting enrollment or closing the 10-year-old school. The meeting begins at 6 p.m.

Abello wrote that he is “very open to discussing ideas for boosting enrollment,” such as adding seventh and eighth grades to the school or seeking students from Westport or other towns. Westport is currently exploring withdrawal from Regional School Unit 12.

The school's educational function is not its only use to the town, Abello told selectmen. “(It) serves as the town's community center – more so than the town hall, the fire department or the selectmen's office – and a gathering place for residents, and not just parents, but former school-age parents, grandparents (and) many others,” he wrote.

Selectmen's Chairwoman Jessica Chubbuck said Abello's email is the only response she has received so far regarding the board's September 10 discussion.

The earliest any changes would take effect for the school would be fall 2013, and only if they had been approved at the May 2013 town meeting, Smith has said.

Rocky Channels School District Superintendent of Schools Eileen King did not immediately return messages left September 11, 14 and 18.