MADAWASKA, Maine — Two St. John Valley school districts will soon start the reorganization process as they consider building a new regional school.
The Madawaska School Department and RSU 33, which includes Frenchville and St. Agatha, could consolidate if a brand-new school is built in the region. The process is just beginning, school officials said Thursday at the second public meeting on the proposal.
The proposed combination would blend Wisdom Middle High School, the Dr. Levesque Elementary School and possibly grades K-12 from Madawaska. It is not only the region’s second chance at an already rare project, but would also be one of the last projects to receive full state funding for basic construction.
Both districts contain aging buildings and small student populations. Without this opportunity, the schools would likely become unsustainable, MSAD 33 and Madawaska Superintendent Ben Sirois said.
“This is a prime opportunity for us to think about the future,” Sirois said. “If we follow the same movement that we’ve been following for the past 20, 30, 40 years, it’s going to be unsustainable, and we’re going to be forced to send our students somewhere that we don’t choose.”
A location has not yet been determined for the new facility, which will likely take six to eight years to complete.
Rick Lyons, Easton school superintendent and a construction consultant for the project, has spent more than three decades as a school superintendent. He’s been involved in building schools before. The opportunity for a new regional facility is “incredibly unique,” he said.
“We built four schools,” Lyons said. “And you folks have a golden opportunity, in my opinion, moving forward.”
The project arose after a 2021 fire destroyed Dr. Levesque Elementary School in Frenchville, which forced all MSAD 33 students into the Wisdom Middle/High School building, a configuration that could not continue, Sirois said.
The Maine Department of Education approved the district late last year as one of two in the state for placement on the Major Capital School Construction list, which ensures state funding for the new facility.
Consolidation would bring together 573 combined PreK to grade 12 students in a new, state-of-the-art regional facility.
Madwaska Middle/High School was built in 1948 and Wisdom Middle/High School in 1965. Madawaska Elementary School is the newest, built in 1995.
It’s too early to estimate the project’s total cost, Sirois said. Basic construction will be covered by the state. Voters will be able to decide if they would like to fund anything that goes above and beyond that design.
At first, Madawaska proposed sending just grades six through 12 to the new school, but in February agreed all grades should go. If the project is to succeed, collaboration has to be all or nothing, MSAD 33 board chair Joshua Desjardin said at the time.
Two distinct processes are in play: reorganization and construction. Each will require a separate referendum vote by residents in both districts.
Reorganization is the legal process of merging the two districts into a single regional school unit. Construction includes site selection, blueprints, bidding and then building the school.
Committees have formed for each process. The reorganization planning committee will work on the legal aspects of forming an RSU, defining the cost-sharing and central office structure and configuration of a school board. The construction committee’s work includes site selection, design and documentation.
Officials hope to hold a referendum vote on reorganization by November. That vote would affirm that, if the new school project moves forward, both districts would come together as an RSU.
“If, in the future, voters vote down the school, then the affirmative vote of the RSU would go away, because without the school there is no RSU,” Sirois said. “We would stay as Madawaska school and MSAD 33.”
A straw poll for site selection and concept design will likely occur between 2027 and 2028, Sirois said.
The next immediate step will be the construction committee’s first meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 13, at the St. John Valley Technology Center in Frenchville. Discussion will include the project’s timeline and description of the state’s school construction process.
All future project updates will be posted on msad33msdcollab.blogspot.com, Sirois said.
