FRENCHVILLE, Maine — Nearly five years after a fire destroyed the Dr. Levesque Elementary School in Frenchville, the Maine Department of Education has approved funding to rebuild the facility.
The department released its approved projects list earlier this month. Frenchville is part of MSAD 33, which also serves St. Agatha.
The St. John Valley school is one of two selected for reconstruction. The other is Bath’s Dike Newell Elementary School, which was badly damaged in a 2022 fire that was set by an arsonist. The news means Dr. Levesque’s more than 100 students and about 20 staff can look forward to moving out of quarters shared with Wisdom Middle-High School in St. Agatha and back into their own building.
The two schools were prioritized because they were both devastated by fires, said MSAD 33 Superintendent Ben Sirois, who also serves as superintendent of the Madawaska School Department and MSAD 27 in Fort Kent.
“The reason that these two projects were approved immediately was because they were school districts impacted by school fires and the State Board of Education wanted these two districts to move forward, given that their respective fires occurred in 2021 and 2022,” he said, adding it was his understanding that more school construction projects will follow.
The two schools were selected through the state’s Major Capital School Construction Program out of a total of 95 on the 2024-25 priority list. The Maine DOE released the news on Nov. 13, listing Dike Elementary first on the list. The school is in RSU 1, which serves Arrowsic, Bath, Phippsburg and Woolwich.
Fire broke out Sunday morning, July 27, 2021, at the Frenchville school. Crews responded around 7 a.m., and by 11 a.m., the fire had spread extensively and flames leapt through the one-story building’s roof. Later, two exterior walls were all that remained.
The fire displaced 130 students, 10 full-time teachers and 10 additional staff. The state fire marshal determined the fire was caused by electrical components in a wall between the gym and nurse’s office.
Students did not miss a single day of school due to the fire, Sirois said. Pre-K and kindergarten students were temporarily relocated to the St. Agatha church and students in grades 1-6 were housed in the elementary wing of Wisdom Middle/High School. Later, all students were transferred to Wisdom.
In 2022, Sirois wrote in a letter to the Maine Department of Education that this situation was not sustainable in the long term, saying the Wisdom MIddle/High School building was not constructed and designed for elementary-aged learners.
In 2023, Sirois estimated a new school could be seven years away.
The dollar amount for the new school is currently unknown, and Sirois said it will be based on what is established in law for Maine school construction based on a per-pupil square footage formula.
Looking ahead, the district’s immediate next steps will be for Sirois and school officials to learn what local communities want for a new school that will support their children for the next several generations. A school construction committee made up of stakeholders will likely guide the process in accordance with the state’s school construction guidelines, Sirois said.
It is also too early to say when construction would potentially begin. The state’s Major Capital Improvement Program for school construction and approval is a 21-step process that includes straw polling for public approval, site selection, concept approval, and a local referendum vote before construction workers can break ground.
The local referendum would be the 13th step out of the 21-step process.
Sirois said he is optimistic about what this new project could mean for the community.
“We are hopeful that this construction project will unite our communities and provide them with hope and excitement for the future education of our students,” he said.
