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By BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff Writer 12/11/2007

At the Farmington selectmen's meeting tonight, a parent who is a member of the Mallett School Building Committee plans to urge the board to get involved in a school decision that could have far-reaching economic and social consequences. The Mallett School is for children in grades kindergarten to three; Cascade Brook teaches fourth to sixth grade. The selectmen's meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at the Farmington Municipal Building.

Parent James Andrews said Monday he was not speaking as a building committee member but as a parent and a resident.

"Selectmen need to do everything they can to keep the school downtown. The plans are still in the very early stages but the building committee is already deeply divided over whether we should even pursue the downtown option or consolidate," he said.

SAD 9 Assistant Superintendent Susan Pratt, who is also on the building committee, said Andrews is acting prematurely.

The site selection report is not expected to be completed by the architect -- Steven Blatt Associates -- until January, she said. It then still must be submitted to the state Department of Education for review and to the SAD 9 board for a vote.

"The architect is looking at every option as he prepares his report for the state," she said.

"Under the tight state requirements, he is required to look at a new building versus renovation, and he has to look at sites on existing SAD 9 properties and at any sites available in the area that SAD 9 does not own," she said.

"We are honestly looking at all three options," she said.

Once the report is issued, there will be public meetings where people can voice their opinions and a referendum on the project.

Andrews said, educationally, the downtown school is an asset because it is within walking distance of the Farmington Library, Hippach Field, several nature preserves, resources at the University of Maine at Farmington and to the new Farmington History Center being created in the Old North Church by the Farmington Historical Society.

"From the town's perspective, that school makes up a large part of what makes Farmington a livable, walkable community," he said. "It has been a trend for years to build schools in rural areas but those schools are no longer connected to their downtowns."

He also is concerned that if Mallett and Cascade Brook schools consolidated to save on costs, how such resources as the cafeteria, gym and library would be shared with kids that range in age from 5 to 11.

Andrews acknowledges the state might find the Mallett School property undersized. SAD 9 agreed several years ago to lease a large portion of the land to UMF in exchange for converting it to a parking lot.

"There are challenges to the site that may doom it. But we need to see if it is possible to overcome those problems," he said.

Andrews, who says he is speaking on behalf of other parents and Mallett School staff, contends the issue of saving the school is not nostalgia -- it is economic. "A vibrant downtown is an economic engine. Families want to move here because they are attracted to the vitality," he said.

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