ST. AGATHA, Maine – After the 2021 loss of Dr. Levesque Elementary School in Frenchville to a fire, MSAD 33 officials are working toward obtaining funding to build a new PreK-12 facility.
The fire marshal’s office said the fire was likely caused by electrical components in a wall between the gym and nurses office. It displaced 130 students, 10 full-time teachers and 10 additional staff who are now under one roof at Wisdom Middle/High School. The elementary school, built in 1964, was deemed a total loss.
And while there is a clear need for a new facility, the district may have to wait over seven years until a new PreK-12 school is actually built.
Due to a lack of funding, MSAD 33 Superintendent Benjamin Sirois said the state board of education is not approving any immediate projects. They are instead asking the district to wait for the next rating cycle to qualify for state funding to rebuild the school. This is expected to occur between 2025 and 2026.
“Assuming approval is given in 2026, a realistic timeline to have a new school built is approximately four to five years after that time,” he said. “The best case scenario would be a new school in 2030.”
After the fire, which occurred on July 27, 2021, PreK and Kindergarten students were relocated to the basement of the St. Agatha Church. Grades 1-6 were relocated to the elementary wing of Wisdom Middle/High School in St. Agatha by Sept. 7, the first day of the new school year.
“The students did not miss a single day of school,” said Sirois. “A modular classroom was acquired in February of 2022 for PreK and Kindergarten. It was used until the end of the school year last June 2023.”
Over the summer, PreK and Kindergarten students were relocated to the inside of Wisdom Middle/High School. All PreK-12 students in the district are now taught under one roof.
And though all of this occurred amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Sirois said that this did not delay any relocation efforts.
MSAD 33 also created a blog about the fire and rebuilding project, which includes several updates and community letters.
In an August 16, 2022 letter to the Maine board of education requesting to be placed on the state’s major capital construction priority list for a PreK-12 facility, Sirois explained that the district’s current situation is not sustainable over the long term.
“The current building, Wisdom Middle/High School, was not constructed and designed for elementary-aged learners, and this has presented some challenges over the past year,” he wrote.
The letter also explained that WBRC architects and engineers, a firm with two offices in Maine, conducted a facility assessment which determined that the scope of the school’s needs are beyond what the small district can afford.
The superintendent said that losing a school and then relocating all the districts’ students under one roof has completely changed education in MSAD 33.
“Staff are resilient and have worked hard over the past several months since the start of this school year to embrace everything that has happened and to focus on positives and the future rather than the past,” he said.
