Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School students earn community service hours Nov. 5 by volunteering to run a survey on school construction issues for Maine School Administrative District 17. Pictured at the polls in Norway are, from left, seniors Adelaide Harthorne and Lidia Melanson, freshman Alice Abbott and junior Tegan Hodgkin. Nicole Carter/Advertiser Democrat

PARIS — A recent survey of voters in the Oxford Hills School District indicates support for designing a fully state-funded $70 million elementary school in Norway, but not two bonds for deferred elementary school maintenance or constructing an elementary in West Paris, both financed by local taxpayers.

Superintendent Heather Manchester shared results of the Nov. 5 survey at Monday night’s board of directors meeting. It was written by Manchester and the Building Committee.

“We got more than 1,600 responses from the community,” she said. “We got some interesting data, which I have here and have also posted on our website.”

The four questions presented to voters at the polls in Harrison, Hebron, Norway, Otisfield, Oxford, Paris, Waterford and West Paris were:

Question 1: Did you know the Oxford Hills School District voters may be asked to approve a fully state-funded elementary school construction project in November of 2025? Yes: 820; No: 796.

Question 2: Do you favor SAD 17’s elementary building committee designing a fully state-funded $70 million central elementary school project in Norway that also retains existing elementary schools in Hebron, Otisfield, Oxford and Paris? Yes: 925; No: 683.

Question 3: If Oxford Hills voters reject a fully state-funded elementary school project, would you support an $18 million elementary school deferred maintenance bond to be repaid by local property taxpayers? Yes: 779; No: 810.

Question 4: If the fully state-funded project is rejected, would you support a $25 million school construction bond to be repaid by local property taxpayers to build a new elementary school in West Paris? Yes: 734; No: 858.

Twenty-seven Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School students earned community service hours by volunteering to run the survey at the polls.

The survey was prompted, in part, to help MSAD 17’s elementary school construction committee, which was recently reseated, to ensure that all eight towns are equitably represented on the project. 

When the committee began meeting in July 2023, most of its volunteers were residents of West Paris or staff of the town’s Agnes Gray Elementary School. 

Since then, the State Department of Education has indicated that it is most likely to financially support a new school that consolidates four of the eight elementary schools due to the poor condition and outdated safety and security systems in the buildings. Potential consolidation could impact where students attend school. 

Many residents throughout the district resist a change that will shift the traditional model of small community schools to a larger centralized building. The issues have been compounded by Agnes Gray’s closure last February after an architectural inspection laid bare how degraded the school had become. 

The school at 170 Main St. was built in the late 1800s and was deemed by an engineering firm to be uninhabitable due to multiple safety failures: lack of adequate fire protection and functional emergency exits; outdated and poorly functioning plumbing and electrical systems; exterior degradation, including the roof that sheds decayed shingles during poor weather; exterior and interior stairwells that are not up to code; and boiler that is years beyond its serviceable life.

Manchester, with the support of directors, ordered it closed immediately.

Last month, the board of directors voted 19-1 not to  allocate up to $6 million to make the school safe.

The school serves about 120 students in grades prekindergarten through six, some of whom now attend Paris Elementary School.

Each of the eight towns have an elementary school.

Should voters support building an elementary school in Norway, it would replace the Guy E. Rowe School there, as well as Harrison, Waterford and West Paris schools. Hebron, Otisfield, Oxford and Paris schools would remain.

The survey results indicate voters are closely divided on whether to keep the community schools or consolidate some.

Answers to each question by town were as follows: