PRINCESS ANNE — Enrollment a Ewell School could be as few as two students next fall, “but we are not shutting the school down,” said Superintendent Dr. John Gaddis.

With long-time teaching principal Janet Evans retiring at the end of this school year, the effort now is to find a certified teacher who will take the assignment.

“We’re having trouble finding somebody who wants to move over to the island, that has transportation,” Dr. Gaddis said, but there is an applicant “who is interested.”

The “worst case scenario” is to go virtual. To do that, the applicable teachers in those grades at Woodson Elementary would have a designated camera in their room so instruction would be broadcast online.

A paraprofessional would be assigned to work with the Smith Island students in person to aid with instruction. Other staffing would include a cafeteria worker and custodian, both part-time positions.

When advising the County Commissioners of the plan, Dr. Gaddis said, the school is important to the community, especially its gym, so it will remain open. “There’s no plan to shut it down,” although he added, “I’d love to give you another building back.”

In speaking to the Board of Education later their April meeting, Dr. Gaddis said Smith Island’s school is important. It also houses the Ewell Library.

The building dates to 1962 with an addition in 1979. In the fall of 2019 when there were eight students the school board began considering ways to address the aging infrastructure — and a declining enrollment with no more children coming up.

In October 2019 Dr. Gaddis envisioned a new building to replace the school’s four classrooms, the library, and the multi-purpose room he dubbed at “café-gym-atorium.” He suggested that it be modular with low- to zero-environmental impact, something that a helicopter could bring in since construction is expensive on the island.

At that time the Interagency Commission on School Construction was paying 100% of construction costs, as it did with Somerset County Technical High School, but if enrollment fell to zero, as Dr. Gaddis said last week, “that’s a different situation.”

For more than a quarter century Ewell School has been the only public school on Smith Island, as Tylerton Elementary closed for good in June 1996. That had been the last one-room schoolhouse in Maryland, with the county selling the building to private owners in 2004.

The last school closed by the Board of Education was the Marion-Sarah Peyton School in 2019, which at that time was serving as the alternative learning center.