School site development without school district financial support

During the late 1970s two neighboring Maine villages became embroiled in argument over a joint school facilities construction project. What for many towns would have been an accepted, natural result of population growth--providing additional school facilities--became for these two towns a volatile issue. After several years of struggle to resolve many of the conflicts, the Great Salt Bay Community School was built. But problems still remained. The school had no external facilities--no playground, no athletic fields, and gravely insufficient parking facilities. Although the building was constructed and equipped, it lacked essential facilities. How this happened involved a series of complex and estranged relationships that existed at several levels in the hierarchy of authority responsible for school building construction. Particularly, the relationships between the State Department of Education's Director of Facilities Planning and the local school committee; the reciprocal dependence between the local school committee and the Selectmen of each town; the apposition of each Board of Selectmen to the other; the association and responsibility of the School Superintendent to the local school committee; the new Principal's relationship to both Superintendent and school committee; and finally, the school committee's perceived financial responsibility for school building construction. Today, however, Great Salt Bay Community School is proud of its total educational facility--the fully equipped school building, a playground, four athletic fields, and a four-acre nature center. This total facility supports the educational program of the approximately 400 children from Kindergarten through Grade Eight and also includes and fosters community education, recreation, and leisure uses. Part I will discuss the setting, lay the foundation for the problems, and define the battle lines. Part II will discuss the causes and effects of the problem, how each perspective in the hierarchy of authority conflicted with the other which resulted in the building of an incomplete facility. Part III will describe the volunteer site development project which led to the realities of a playground, athletic fields, a nature center, parking facilities and landscaping without school district financial support. Part IV will analyze factors that contributed to the need for and completion of the school site; Part V will conclude the study and make recommendations for future research.