Closing a school is not a cause for celebration, Wiscasset School Committee Chairman Steve Smith said. The town’s 367-133 decision Dec. 9 to close Wiscasset Primary School was the outcome Smith had favored, so that the committee could close a school after this school year and offer taxpayers a smaller budget in 2015.

But on Dec. 10, about 22 hours after the 500 votes were counted, Smith took a moment to acknowledge that the school has been a part of the community for more than 40 years.

“That’s a very important thing for the town,” Smith said at the committee’s meeting in the Wiscasset High School library. He again thanked the town for supporting the committee’s September decision to close the primary school. And he said the committee now has a responsibility to those residents who opposed the closure, to get the job done on consolidation.

“We have to make sure they’re comfortable sending their kids (to Wiscasset Middle School),” Smith said. That responsibility also applies to the school’s staff who will move with the students, he said.

To that end, the committee moved forward on the first steps in the closure process.

Members Chelsea Haggett and Michael Dunn agreed to start a consolidation subcommittee that will work with staff and the community in making a smooth transition.

“I think it’s important that we’re a part of this, and that we offer whatever support we can,” Smith said. 

In addition, Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage said he will prepare an educational plan for the primary school students the closure will displace. The plan should be ready in time for the school committee to consider at its January meeting, Beverage said.

The state requires the plan to encompass transportation, meals and other aspects of serving the students in kindergarten through fourth grade, Beverage said. He predicted the Maine Department of Education would find only minor changes to make, if any, in what the town proposes.

“I don’t see that as much of a hurdle,” he said.

The committee approved a letter to Regional School Unit 12 Superintendent Howard Tuttle, informing him that the primary school would be closing. Both state law and the town’s withdrawal agreement with the district require the notice, Wiscasset officials said.

On another front regarding the closure, Beverage said he would start talking with Wiscasset Town Manager Marian Anderson about next year’s closure. One item still to be determined is whether the building’s shutdown or “mothballing” costs, projected at about $50,000, will come out of the municipal coffers or those of the school department, which has a separate budget.

“It’s basically the same pair of pants, a different pocket,” Committee Vice Chairman Glen Craig said.