Panel Backs Baxter Site for New School

By KELLEY BOUCHARD Staff Writer —

A committee of Portland City Council and School Committee members decided Tuesday that a new elementary school should be built where the former Baxter Elementary School stands.

The $18 million school would be built with state money and replace the 100-year-old Clifford Elementary School, which the School Committee decided in September to close rather than renovate.

The Elementary School Facilities Committee voted 3-1 to recommend the Baxter site off Ocean Avenue instead of a combined West School and Dougherty Field site on Douglass Street.

The committee backed the recommendation of its consultant, WBRC Architects-Engineers of Bangor, who said the 12-acre Baxter site would be safer, easier and less costly to develop.

The 19-acre site on Douglass Street includes a former landfill, which has been blamed for structural problems and methane gas releases at the West School, a former elementary school that now houses special-education and adult-education classes.

Although no environmental testing was done to determine whether the landfill still poses an environmental threat, WBRC representatives said the state would be reluctant to pay for a new school on or near a former landfill.

If a new school were built on Douglass Street, it would cost an additional $1 million to clean up the property, WBRC representatives said.

"We cannot afford to spend the money we spend on (elementary) schools," said Ellen Alcorn, a School Committee member. "We need to think about the 7,000 kids being affected by cuts in our schools."

Mayor Nicholas Mavodones Jr., the facilities committee’s chairman, and Benjamin Meiklejohn, a School Committee member, voted in favor of the Baxter site, along with Alcorn.

Councilor Edward Suslovic cast the sole vote against. He said he prefers the Douglass Street site, and he questioned concerns about the former landfill, noting that soil tests haven’t been done and that students continue to use the West School.

Suslovic said it doesn’t make sense to build a new school at Baxter, within a half-mile of other elementary schools. He also questioned removing a school from the Libbytown neighborhood, which recently became eligible for federal community development grants because of a drop in household incomes.

"That’s not sound public policy," Suslovic said.

At either site, the existing school building would have to be demolished. The former Baxter school houses the district’s multilingual program.

The facilities committee, meeting for the last time, issued several other recommendations on the future of Portland’s eight mainland elementary schools. The School Committee will consider the recommendations on Nov. 28.

Formed in August 2006, the facilities committee includes three councilors and three School Committee members. Councilor James Cloutier and School Committee member Susan Hopkins were unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting at City Hall.

Facilities committee members who support the Baxter site said its central location would make it easier to reconfigure school district boundaries and possibly close another elementary school.

"The Baxter (site) gives us the flexibility to do what we need to do in the future," Meiklejohn said, adding that he believes the 3,100 students who attend Portland’s eight mainland elementary schools could be served effectively by seven schools.

Clifford has 271 students this year. The facilities committee hasn’t recommended a particular size for the new school, but officials have said that the building would serve about 400 students.

Among its other recommendations, the facilities committee said the district should move forward with eight mainland elementary schools of 400 students each and create a redistricting plan that strives for socioeconomic diversity in all schools.

The committee also recommended maintaining the Clifford School building as a neighborhood asset; making sure the new elementary school also is a community center; creating a task force to determine the future use of West School; and establishing a standing committee to address long-range school facilities needs.

Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:

kbouchard@pressherald.com

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