“Hello,” I whispered into the phone, “can I speak to the editor? Oh, yes, well I can’t tell you who this is, but I just wanted you to know the Lincolnville School Committee is meeting next week, Monday, and I hope the Herald will send a reporter.” It was the early 1970s, and it was the only thing I could think to do.

This was a very different town 50 years ago, with a simpler town government and a simpler school. Three selectmen ran the place along with a town clerk who worked out of her house; the selectmen’s office was in the school, a tiny space across the hall from the principal’s equally small office. The School Committee had three members, and we contracted with Camden for administrative services including their Superintendent.

My husband was the principal of Lincolnville Central School, the teaching principal; he taught grades seven and eight math and science. Lincolnville had joined with Hope, sending our grade one through four students to their school, and they sending their grades five through eight to us. Students from as far away as Route 17 in South Hope were bussed to Lincolnville, while our little ones were getting on the bus to Hope. There was no kindergarten.

LCS in the 1970s was a four-room school, the original consolidated school that was built in 1947, replacing the four remaining, overcrowded one-room schools – Youngtown, Beach, Center, and Wiley Corner.

In early February of 1946 a “well-attended” meeting was held in the Community Room (in a building that used to stand at the intersection of 173 and 52; today it’s Telephone Company land). The meeting had been called by the Superintendent of Schools and a representative of the State Department of Education.

None of the one-room schools had a water supply, goes the report from that meeting, and three were located on dirt roads, impassable in mud season. All were drafty, the underpinnings on some were rotten, one roof leaked badly. All were heated with wood and must have fires started each morning, which meant a cold building at the start of the day. All the toilets were unsanitary, and none had sufficient playgrounds. Because of the poor facilities and the low salaries it was impossible to get A-1 teachers, said those school officials, unless they happened to live in town. With eight grades in a single room under one teacher, just five to ten minutes was spent per subject in each grade.

The advantages of consolidation would be a centrally located building with a central heating system, a water supply, flush toilets, and ample playground space. Professional leadership could be provided in such a school, and each teacher would have only two grades rather than eight. That meant three hours of instruction per grade rather than the forty-five minutes under the current system.

The estimated cost of a building with four classrooms would be between $25,000 and $35,000, but the committee believed this cost could be substantially reduced “by cooperation and by using lumber on town-owned lots.” The committee urged construction start as soon as possible and that “this most worthwhile project be financed by long-term bonds.”

Imagine how that report was received by the folks crowded into the Community Room on a cold February day! Except it wouldn’t have been news to them; the continual upkeep on the numerous old school buildings was a topic at every town meeting. They knew it was time to do something.

The new building was ready for the opening of school in September 1947. At the dedication townspeople admired the large fluorescent light fixtures, the spacious classrooms and storage spaces in the walls. Lincolnville had put one-room schools and all their attendant problems behind her. A new era was beginning for the town and for her students.

Except that there are always problems. Of course, as the principal’s wife I knew all about the problems: the eighth grade class with 37 kids, the open dump next to the school where weasels foraged, the lack of a kindergarten. Every summer Wally would write up goals for the coming year, and every year he’d come home and tell me that none of them were happening.

With babies coming along in our house, kindergarten was at the top of our personal list. “Do what I do,” suggested one School Committee member, “tuition your kid to Camden.” Pay tuition and drive the child to and from Camden every day? Who could afford that?

The School Committee virtually met in secret. Well, not really secret, because citizens could come if they knew there was a meeting, but that was the problem. Meetings weren’t announced in the paper, nor was the agenda posted there. Hence my clandestine call to Jane Day, editor of The Camden Herald. The principal’s wife was afraid to be the whistleblower.

But nothing changed. No reporter showed up, no notice ever appeared in the paper. Maybe Jane Day shrugged off my weird call as a prank. Instead a group of parents, with some 15 kindergarten-eligible kids between them, began meeting privately, researching and then bemoaning what we found out. Of some 450-plus municipalities in Maine at the time, only four had no kindergarten: Appleton, Hope, Lincolnville and one other that I can’t remember.

We made several failed attempts at town meetings to get kindergarten approved for our school where someone always stood up to say, “Look at me; I never had kindergarten, and I turned out fine”. In the meantime, we organized a private kindergarten, hired a teacher and set up our classroom in a corner of the school cafeteria. We actually had to pay rent to the school for the space.

It was about 1983, after running the private kindergarten for some three years, that the town finally voted to add kindergarten to the school program, an ironic victory, for that very year the Legislature made kindergarten mandatory!

Was the School Committee negligent? From the distance of some 40 years, well, yes and no. Of course they were trying to do their job, keeping an eye on the money while gauging the mood of the people. When that mood finally tipped in favor of kindergarten, the School Committee was all in. Should they have nudged the taxpayers by talking up the benefits of kindergarten, done their job promoting education? Well, of course.

When the time was right, when Wally had moved on and become teaching principal in Castine, I ran for School Committee. I think I served two terms, and was chairman for a time. By then there were five members, mostly parents of school age kids, men and women, a good mix of old-timers and newcomers.

There are always issues, and the 80s and 90s saw a fair share of knotty problems. We weathered a spell of having our own superintendent/principal, a citizen-inspired plan that was meant to save us the few thousand dollars for administrative costs that we were then paying Camden. The state opposed it, but Lincolnville has always had a mind of its own. Proponents lobbied hard in Augusta, and we actually got legislation passed allowing us to circumvent the regulation that said a town had to be either on an island or geographically isolated to have a superintendent/principal. We were neither, but apparently we had a loud voice.

The School Committee I was serving on had the difficult task of finding someone to fill the position. We did our best, but the whole thing kind of blew up, as only a school issue can, and we found ourselves facing an angry crowd in a classroom one night. Come to think of it, that room (which no longer exists, because, as you might remember, that building had to be torn down, a situation a later School Committee had to deal with) would have been nearly where Walsh Common is today.

So sitting there in Walsh Common the other night, this time out in the audience, listening to a School Committee trying to explain their decision not to sign on to a solar project, felt eerily like déjà vu. I came home frustrated that the School Committee chairman’s explanation was all about money, and her worry that somehow this wasn’t going to be a good deal for the town, this in spite of the savings going solar will bring.

She told us at least five times that she didn’t like it.

Where was the assertion that the world needs to turn to renewable energy, that this was one little piece we could do? Where were the children in this? And then she indicated the session was over, over before those questions even got asked.

I wish we could have heard from the rest of the Committee. Later, in an email responding to the hot-headed one I fired off to the Bulletin Board that night, one member of the Committee assured me that they took the subject of renewable energy seriously. Listing the work they’ve done to reduce energy waste within the building, to upgrade energy systems, to put in long term building maintenance plans, which, by the way, is a great idea that might have saved our former building, the one that filled up with mold. They’ve dealt with holes in the siding and roofing, just to name a few, all with the goal of reducing energy consumption.

Serving on the School Committee is arduous, and generally thankless. The public often sees the problems, not the solutions that are quietly implemented. I, for one, have been inordinately proud of the work of our school, of the programs, the fact that my grandchildren (six of them at one time a couple of years ago) have thrived and are happy to go to school.

But I think with this one issue, the solar project that the energy team researched so thoroughly before proposing it to the School Committee, has been a missed opportunity. Not only did the Committee decide not to pursue it, but we the public weren’t let in on it until it was too late for us to weigh in. Apparently, according to the chairman, the proposal was too complicated and left them with too many questions. Airing those questions publicly might have led to some resolution.

The energy team has generally worked quietly and under the radar; they’re not a town committee, but rather they’re a group of volunteers who have educated themselves to the ins and outs of renewable energy. The success of the Library’s solar panels, and then the solar array at the Fire Station, which provides power for the Town Office and the Beach street lights, attest to their knowledge and to the town’s acceptance of solar. If they’d presented the project in a news article or with an informational meeting, as they were first presenting it to the School Committee, perhaps there could have been an intelligent debate about it with the public participating.

It’s too late for this current project, the Livermore Falls solar array, but others will come along. The energy team held a public informational meeting last evening (Sunday). Maybe now people will be talking about it.

Fifty years ago I couldn’t tell anyone about the weasels living in the school dump; today I can, and I don’t apologize for it. Oh, and by the way, once Wally pointed out the little critters to the School Committee they did the right thing and ordered trash pickup at the school, and it only cost taxpayers $5 a week.

Getting to Know Us

Was yours one of the 18 households to get an invitation to visit the Schoolhouse Museum last Saturday? The Historical Society (LHS) will be holding these Open Houses most Saturdays through the rest of the winter and spring. They’re by invitation with people randomly chosen from a list of Lincolnville residents.

The old Beach School at 33 Beach Road, AKA the Lincolnville Improvement Association building or LIA, is in peril. Specifically, because it needs some pretty significant repair work at a hefty price, the town is looking at all the options. Ever since its original purpose, as the one-room school for the Beach, ended in 1947 with the building of the consolidated school (see above!) it’s been maintained by volunteers, the LIA membership.

The Schoolhouse Museum opened in 1994 on the second floor where it now houses the town’s historical archive. The Board of the LHS– Sandy Delano, Cecil Dennison, Rosey Gerry, Connie Parker, Dwight Wass and myself – will be on hand to show you the building, and the displays of the way life used to be in Lincolnville.

There may be a vote this June to decide the building’s fate; we want as many people as possible to be informed and familiar with it, one of Lincolnville’s treasured old buildings. Postcards go out next week for the Feb. 22 Open House; watch for yours!

School

Congratulations to former LCS student Kristina Kelly who was recently honored, with her family, as a guest of Senator Erin Herbig and recognized at the State House for her accomplishments as a member of CHRHS four-time State Championship Soccer Team. Kristina has been named the National Player of the Year by United Soccer Coaches, the first Maine player to be named a National Player of the Year. Great job!

The school winter break starts next Monday.

Library

A busy week ahead at the Library:

Needlework group on Tuesday, 4-6 p.m.

Coiled basket making on Wednesday, 3-5 p.m. with Jane Liedtke demonstrating techniques. Participants should bring their own supplies

Bruce Korhorn’s talk “Sailing to the Antarctic Peninsula” will be Wednesday, Feb. 12, 7 p.m. Told with stories and spectacular photos Bruce, who is a biology professor at Bowdoin, is also a skier, mountaineer and sailor. All are invited, and as always these Wednesday Library programs are free.

Then Thursday, Feb. 13 Ning Sawangjaeng will be returning to the library for an “Evening of Mindfulness”. Ning, who lives in Lincolnville, is originally from Thailand where she grew up practicing mindfulness. 

She’ll share her own positive experiences with the practice and then lead the group in some guided silent meditations, with a particular focus on self-compassion and “tending to the heart”, offering advice on how to continue practicing at home. This free program is open to both beginners and those with experience in practicing mindfulness and meditation. Ning led a similar program in November and it proved to be a wonderful relaxing evening!

Need a Babysitter for Valentine’s Day?

The Girl Scouts sent this out on the Bulletin Board last week: “Do you want to go out Valentine's Day, which is this Friday, but need a sitter? Lincolnville's Girl Scout Troop #2252 is working on their babysitting badge and raising money for their trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, AL in April. The girls will be offering babysitting on Friday from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm at the Community Building next to the United Christian Church in Lincolnville Center. There will be 10-12 girls babysitting. Age range includes potty-trained kids and up (sorry, no teenagers please!). Four adults will be supervising the event. We have a maximum of 25 slots available. Cost for the event is $25.00 (Not bad for 5 hours of kid-free time). Sign up while spots are still available. Pizza and snacks will be provided so you don't even have to feed the kiddos before you drop them off. Games, music, crafts and activities will be provided during the event.”

To reserve a spot call or text Emily Flaherty at 505-5493 or email.

By the way, when the Girl Scouts were selling their cookies, someone asked if it wasn’t just as helpful to send them a donation towards their trip to the Space Camp. The response was that G.S. aren’t allowed to accept donations, but are expected to work for camp funds, etc. by selling cookies or in this case, baby-sitting.

Blood Drive

A Red Cross blood drive is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 29, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the Community Building. To schedule an appointment call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or online and enter Lincolnville CB.