FRENCHVILLE, Maine — When Dr. Levesque Elementary School in Frenchville burned down five years ago, students and staff moved into Wisdom Middle/High School in St. Agatha, a temporary but unsustainable fix.
Now, MSAD 33, which serves Frenchville and St. Agatha, is one of two districts in Maine that could receive a new, state-funded PreK-12 facility.
Meanwhile, the nearby Madawaska school district is considering joining MSAD 33.
The move would put more northern Maine students in a new school while helping to cut costs by sharing resources. The district may also be one of the last to have the state foot the bill, as Maine is exploring the long-term impacts of such projects and will likely cut school construction funding — meaning taxpayers will feel the burden.
“I do believe that future funding for these projects is going to come at a higher local cost than it has in the past,” said MSAD 33 and Madawaska Superintendent Ben Sirois. “Our project that’s currently approved is going to follow the past model, which is essentially going to be a fully funded school at the base level.”
Construction and consolidation statewide
The governor’s Commission on School Construction found that of the state’s 600 schools, roughly 500 will require replacement, renovation or modernization within the next 20 years. That could come at a cost conservatively estimated at $11 billion — nearly four times higher than all annual property taxes collected statewide, which is roughly $3 billion per year.
Even now, completely state-funded school reconstruction is rare. MSAD 33 was one of two districts approved for 2025-26. The other was RSU 1, which serves Bath, Arrowsic, Woolwich and Phippsburg. Both rebuilds were approved because they’re replacing buildings lost to fire.
The Maine Department of Education anticipates approving more school projects from the 2024-25 priority list, Communications Director Chloe Teboe said. She added it’s too early to know how future school projects will be funded, and when those changes will occur, Teboe said.
“There are ongoing discussions regarding the establishment of a cost-sharing formula for future Maine Capital School Construction Program projects; however, there is no timeline for implementation at this point,” Teboe said.
School district consolidations don’t happen often, but there have been a few, she said. In 2018, RSU 56 (Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru) was established when those towns withdrew from RSU 10. RSU 89 (Mount Chase, Patten, Sherman and Stacyville) formed in 2019 when the towns withdrew from Dyer Brook-based RSU 50.
Most recently, Bremen, Damariscotta and Newcastle united as RSU 48 in July 2025, after breaking away from AOS 93 in central Lincoln County. These towns previously had a consolidated PreK-8 school, but separate high school facilities, Teboe said.
Not the old Valley Unified
This isn’t the first time St. John Valley schools have considered combining. The region, collectively known as Valley Unified, explored a new grade 9-16 school in 2015 including the Frenchville district, Madawaska School Department and Fort Kent’s MSAD 27.
The project would have received $100 million from the state, but ultimately died after six years of planning because the communities couldn’t agree on where the school should be.
The Department of Education proposed a Frenchville site, and towns in MSAD 33 and Madawaska overwhelmingly voted in favor. Every MSAD 27 town approved except Fort Kent, which resulted in a districtwide tie vote of 419 yes and 419 no.
Fort Kent school and town officials believed having the building in Frenchville, about 12 miles away, would negatively impact student services. SAD 27 also opposed it because the district would have paid just over 50 percent of the bill under the Valley Unified Interlocal Agreement, which is proportional to the student population and valuation.
A Fort Kent citizen group challenged the site selection process in court in January 2020. The district said in September 2020 it would withdraw from Valley Unified, and a last-ditch attempt to solidify the deal through mediation failed in December 2020.
The Maine State Board of Education finally killed the project in February 2021.
It’s extremely unusual for a region to be approved for this type of project, have it axed, and then get a similar opportunity within such a short period of time, Teboe said.
“It is difficult to say for certain whether a similar instance has occurred elsewhere,” she said, “but this situation was certainly unique.”
But the new proposal has key differences from the former Valley Unified effort. SAD 27 is not in the picture, and the idea involves different grade levels.
The former Valley Unified was an “integrated, consolidated 9-16 educational facility” through a different funding program, which aimed to unify high school and post-secondary education, Teboe said. The Frenchville plan, on the other hand, is funded through the state’s more general Major Capital School Construction Program and would create a PreK-12 facility.
The project could become collaborative if Madawaska joins the district.
Why think about a combined school?
The prospect of Madawaska joining SAD 33 first surfaced around November 2024 as a way to share resources and cut costs, Sirois said.
If the districts combine, the new facility would replace Wisdom, and Madawaska would likely retain its elementary school, he said.
School costs became an issue throughout Maine in 2025 when numerous regions disputed proposed budgets. Voters in Madawaska and SAD 27 rejected proposals multiple times. Madawaska school officials cut nearly $200,000 before their budget was approved.
Madawaska’s Middle/High School was first built in 1948, though it has received upgrades. Wisdom Middle/High School was built between the mid-1950s and early 1960s, Sirois said. Madawaska’s elementary school is the newest, built around 1995.
The districts have a combined student population of 573 — 229 in MSAD 33 and 344 in Madawaska. For five years, SAD 33’s PreK-12 students and staff have been at Wisdom, but that is not sustainable, Sirois said.
“You can’t walk into that building and ask for a spare room,” he said. “They’re using conference rooms for early college classes. It’s really tight.”
Band and art share a single room, so their sessions can’t coincide. And if a student requires an individual room, the school would be hard pressed to come up with one, Sirois said.
Wisdom Middle/High School Principal Robby Nadeau is hopeful about the project and what it could mean for the three communities, adding that Frenchville in particular has been through a lot challenges since the Dr. Levesque fire.
Nadeau said a new school could bring benefits, particularly if Madawaska does join MSAD 33. The two districts are not only neighbors, but share a strong Acadian culture.
“Being able to bring that together in one school will be a great benefit to both communities,” he said.
Next steps
A committee meets monthly to talk about what merging Madawaska and SAD 33 would look like. Members will determine governance, teacher contracts and how assets and debt would be managed.
The committee will then recommend whether to consolidate the two districts. Madawaska voters will choose whether to join SAD 33, and then voters in SAD 33 communities will vote to accept Madawaska.
It will likely take six to eight years to finish the new PreK-12 school, Sirois said, but the district consolidation could finish earlier, which would allow all the communities to join in site selection and other aspects of the process.
A meeting is planned at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at the St. John Valley Technology Center in Frenchville involving officials from SAD 33, Madawaska and the Maine Department of Education to discuss the new school. The session was originally planned for Jan. 26 but was postponed due to weather.
