South Portland Studies Future of Secondary Schools
School officials are turning their attention to South Portland High School and the city’s two middle schools, now that the multimillion-dollar overhaul of four elementary schools is near completion. A proposal to renovate and rebuild the high school and middle schools started to take shape this week. The school board narrowed down possible options for the three schools on Monday and got initial estimates for the project’s costs, which could exceed $80 million.
The options for the city’s secondary schools include renovating the high school and Mahoney Middle School and building a new school to replace Memorial Middle School.
School officials are discussing combining the two middle schools into a new school of 750 students at the existing Memorial site.
Another option is building a new high school elsewhere in the city and converting the current high school into a consolidated middle school. That is unlikely, since no available site is large enough for the new building, school officials said.
Superintendent Wendy Houlihan set a time line that includes community meetings this fall on what options residents favor. The City Council and the school board would make a final decision next summer and send a proposal to voters in November 2006.
The new plan comes as a major elementary school construction project comes to an end. In 2001, voters backed a $28 million borrowing plan to overhaul four of the city’s elementary schools. The work is expected to conclude this summer when contractors finish renovations at Dyer School.
Driving the new construction proposal are concerns about schools being outdated and incompatible with today’s more personalized approach to education.
The three secondary schools also have problems with heating and ventilation, electrical systems that can’t support the expanding use of computers, and multiple entrances that raise security concerns. Crowding isn’t an issue at the schools, Houlihan said.
Dennis Welch, the father of a middle school student and a high school student, said the district keeps spending money to fix problems at the high school and middle schools instead of addressing the buildings’ larger issues. He serves on a committee that is planning the secondary school project.
"It always seemed to me they’re throwing more and more money into putting out fires," Welch said.
Houlihan said the planning committee of parents, teachers, administrators and elected officials will hold meetings with residents to determine what they want and start deciding whether the project should be done all at once or spaced out over a number of years.
The question of whether the city should have one or two middle schools could become one of the bigger issues. A structural review of the schools showed that Mahoney, which was built in the 1920s, is a solid structure that the district can continue to use, but Memorial, which was built in the 1960s, would need to come down except for a wing that includes the gym.
An earlier estimate showed that consolidating schools would save about $11 million in construction costs, but voters have opposed larger schools. They rejected a plan to consolidated elementary schools in 1999, though it would have been cheaper than the renovation plan they later approved.
Residents support education in the city, said school board Chairman Mark Reuscher, but some have concerns about property taxes. He expects the question of spending money on school construction to come down to a debate between the two groups, a common theme in local referendums on education spending.
"I think parents and teachers that know the schools know we need some renovations and some changes," said Reuscher, the father of two. "But those folks who don’t have kids in schools may not see that."
Staff Writer Mark Peters can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:
mpeters@pressherald.com