Public comments on school projects at hearing
Public comments on school projects at hearing
By Zack Anchors
Staff writer
Along with choosing candidates for a number of offices and voting on two state referendums on the this fall’s ballot, Scarborough voters will be asked to vote “yes” or “no” on two bond questions put forth by the Scarborough School Department.
The first question asks voters if they will approve “issuance of up to $38,325,000 bonds of the town to fund the cost of a new intermediate school to replace the Wentworth Intermediate School.” The second question asks voters if they will approve “issuance of up to $16,620,000 bonds of the town to fund additions and renovations to Scarborough Middle School.” At a public hearing last Tuesday at the municipal building, town officials and representatives from Harriman Associates – an architecture and engineering firm – explained the proposed projects in detail. The public was also given the opportunity to share comments on the projects. While several residents spoke in favor of the bonds, there were no comments in opposition.
Rob Klinedinst from Harriman Associates gave a presentation at the hearing that featured images of the proposed projects and detailed financial and design information.
Klinedinst also offered an analysis of the cost of making improvements to the Wentworth Intermediate School instead of building a new intermediate school. He projected that a renovation and addition project would cost the town around $33 million, 88 percent of what the proposed new building would cost.
Some of the main advantages of the new school, according to Klinedinst, would be a smaller building footprint and a better layout of the classrooms. The design would allow for shorter travel distances for students between classes, maximizing instruction time and would provide a safer site, both in terms of the traffic flow outside the building and the actual security of the building. Unlike the Wentworth School, the new school would be fully sprinkled and have a modern fire and security system.
The classroom wing layout would allow for “team gathering areas, centralized support spaces and educational efficiency,” Klinedinst said. There would be one main entrance to the school, with administration offices and the nurse’s clinic surrounding it.
The building would be 184,794 square feet in volume. It would be built beside the current school, allowing classes to go uninterrupted during construction. Once the school is finished, the old school would be demolished and a parking lot would go in its place.
A number of school employees and parents urged voters to vote in favor of the new intermediate school, many sharing stories of the deteriorating conditions at the current school.
“What I’m concerned about is the parts of the building that you can’t see,” said Pam Joy, a frequent volunteer at the Wentworth who has two children who have attended the school.
Joy listed air quality, the presence of asbestos tiling, the lack of sprinklers, fluctuating temperatures and a high number of building entrances as safety and health concerns.
Sally Boardman, who has worked for the school 13 years as an ESL teacher, said she teaches in the oldest portable classroom at the school.
“It’s extremely cold,” she said. “I lost the heat in my room on four occasions last year…the room is chilly even when the heat is on.”
“The exterior of my building has large green mold spots on it,” said Boardman. “On the inside, on the windows, there is mold on the wood.”
Another school employee, Karen Thomas, who has two children who attended Wentworth, said her students regularly wear winter jackets in her classroom in the winter.
“And in the fall and spring the average temperature in my classroom is 85 degrees,” she said. “The students are dripping.”
Because of the layout of the building, Thomas said it takes her students a four or five minute walk to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, taking away valuable instruction time.
“It’s far enough that I have to walk with them,” she said. “I have three bathroom breaks scheduled during the day…the whole class walks down the hall.”
“It’s time to replace it,” Thomas said of the school. “It’s moldy, it’s inefficient and it has had its day.”
School Board member David Beneman said that the plan being presented to voters for the new school has been carefully planned and reworked over years through the efforts of the School Board, building committees and Harriman Associates.
“What you are getting now is the best plan, the most cost-effective plan, the most efficient plan that has come out of this study,” he said.
One of the primary aims of the addition to the middle school is to provide additional space to a school that teachers say was overcrowded the day it opened. Harriman’s plans would bring the school from 90,047 square-feet to 174,954 square-feet. The addition would cost around $10 million by itself, but the renovations and other costs add about another $6 million.
School Board member Jackie Perry spoke in favor of the middle school project, describing the school as “bursting at the seams.” She said that when the middle school was built the town had tried to build it bigger but could not get support from the state. She noted that during the planning process for the current project several changes had made to make it less costly, such as setting aside plans to build a full-size gymnasium.
Town Manager Ron Owens said that there was a minor error on the ballot that voters should be aware of. He said that below each bond question there is a financial statement detailing the debt structure of the bond. Owens said all the information on the ballot is correct except for one number describing the maturity of the debt. He said a statement on both questions of the ballot should describe a 30-year maturity instead of a 20-year maturity.
By Zack Anchors
Staff writer
Along with choosing candidates for a number of offices and voting on two state referendums on the this fall’s ballot, Scarborough voters will be asked to vote “yes” or “no” on two bond questions put forth by the Scarborough School Department.
The first question asks voters if they will approve “issuance of up to $38,325,000 bonds of the town to fund the cost of a new intermediate school to replace the Wentworth Intermediate School.” The second question asks voters if they will approve “issuance of up to $16,620,000 bonds of the town to fund additions and renovations to Scarborough Middle School.” At a public hearing last Tuesday at the municipal building, town officials and representatives from Harriman Associates – an architecture and engineering firm – explained the proposed projects in detail. The public was also given the opportunity to share comments on the projects. While several residents spoke in favor of the bonds, there were no comments in opposition.
Rob Klinedinst from Harriman Associates gave a presentation at the hearing that featured images of the proposed projects and detailed financial and design information.
Klinedinst also offered an analysis of the cost of making improvements to the Wentworth Intermediate School instead of building a new intermediate school. He projected that a renovation and addition project would cost the town around $33 million, 88 percent of what the proposed new building would cost.
Some of the main advantages of the new school, according to Klinedinst, would be a smaller building footprint and a better layout of the classrooms. The design would allow for shorter travel distances for students between classes, maximizing instruction time and would provide a safer site, both in terms of the traffic flow outside the building and the actual security of the building. Unlike the Wentworth School, the new school would be fully sprinkled and have a modern fire and security system.
The classroom wing layout would allow for “team gathering areas, centralized support spaces and educational efficiency,” Klinedinst said. There would be one main entrance to the school, with administration offices and the nurse’s clinic surrounding it.
The building would be 184,794 square feet in volume. It would be built beside the current school, allowing classes to go uninterrupted during construction. Once the school is finished, the old school would be demolished and a parking lot would go in its place.
A number of school employees and parents urged voters to vote in favor of the new intermediate school, many sharing stories of the deteriorating conditions at the current school.
“What I’m concerned about is the parts of the building that you can’t see,” said Pam Joy, a frequent volunteer at the Wentworth who has two children who have attended the school.
Joy listed air quality, the presence of asbestos tiling, the lack of sprinklers, fluctuating temperatures and a high number of building entrances as safety and health concerns.
Sally Boardman, who has worked for the school 13 years as an ESL teacher, said she teaches in the oldest portable classroom at the school.
“It’s extremely cold,” she said. “I lost the heat in my room on four occasions last year…the room is chilly even when the heat is on.”
“The exterior of my building has large green mold spots on it,” said Boardman. “On the inside, on the windows, there is mold on the wood.”
Another school employee, Karen Thomas, who has two children who attended Wentworth, said her students regularly wear winter jackets in her classroom in the winter.
“And in the fall and spring the average temperature in my classroom is 85 degrees,” she said. “The students are dripping.”
Because of the layout of the building, Thomas said it takes her students a four or five minute walk to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, taking away valuable instruction time.
“It’s far enough that I have to walk with them,” she said. “I have three bathroom breaks scheduled during the day…the whole class walks down the hall.”
“It’s time to replace it,” Thomas said of the school. “It’s moldy, it’s inefficient and it has had its day.”
School Board member David Beneman said that the plan being presented to voters for the new school has been carefully planned and reworked over years through the efforts of the School Board, building committees and Harriman Associates.
“What you are getting now is the best plan, the most cost-effective plan, the most efficient plan that has come out of this study,” he said.
One of the primary aims of the addition to the middle school is to provide additional space to a school that teachers say was overcrowded the day it opened. Harriman’s plans would bring the school from 90,047 square-feet to 174,954 square-feet. The addition would cost around $10 million by itself, but the renovations and other costs add about another $6 million.
School Board member Jackie Perry spoke in favor of the middle school project, describing the school as “bursting at the seams.” She said that when the middle school was built the town had tried to build it bigger but could not get support from the state. She noted that during the planning process for the current project several changes had made to make it less costly, such as setting aside plans to build a full-size gymnasium.
Town Manager Ron Owens said that there was a minor error on the ballot that voters should be aware of. He said that below each bond question there is a financial statement detailing the debt structure of the bond. Owens said all the information on the ballot is correct except for one number describing the maturity of the debt. He said a statement on both questions of the ballot should describe a 30-year maturity instead of a 20-year maturity.
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