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Log inPanel takes new tack on school construction
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Panel takes new tack on school construction
by Outspoken on Wed Aug 13, 2008 4:46 am
Panel takes new tack on school construction
Meetings will be held in each voting district to present renovation and rebuilding options.
By TOM BELL
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
SOUTH PORTLAND — School officials plan to hold meetings in each of the city's five voting districts to discuss rebuilding plans for South Portland's aging high school.
Officials are trying to build support for options to be placed on the November ballot as part of an advisory vote. Officials want voters to approve a final plan in the fall of 2009.
The first meeting is at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Skillin Elementary School gym.
By doing a better job educating the public, officials hope they will avoid a repeat of what happened last November, when voters, by a ratio of 3 to 1, killed a proposal to borrow $56 million for a renovation and addition project at South Portland High School.
School officials believe they will have more success this time if they get out to the city's neighborhoods and educate voters about what's at stake.
"Last year, we were asking them to come to us. In this case, we are going out to them," said Superintendent Suzanne Godin. "That may help."
The project would have paid for tearing down and rebuilding part of the current high school, sections of which were poorly constructed and are plagued by drainage problems.
The plan also called for fixing the roof, repairing the heating, ventilation and stormwater removal systems, removing asbestos and complying with federal disability access standards.
The original portion of the school was built in 1952, and the addition was built in the 1960s.
Two parts of the plan were controversial: establishing a $1 million artificial turf athletic field and constructing a second gym.
Officials said the old Beel Gym, which has two levels, does not meet modern safety and accessibility standards. Meeting those standards would be expensive and also reduce seating capacity by 25 percent.
The plan called for moving all public events, such as graduation ceremonies and school assemblies, to the new gym, and using the old gym for gym classes and scrimmages.
Bringing the old gym up to code would cost almost as much as building a new gym, said Polly Ward, the school department's business manager.
She did not provide an estimate of that cost.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=204438&ac=PHnws
Jill Brady/Staff Photographer
Meetings will be held in each voting district to present renovation and rebuilding options.
By TOM BELL
Staff Writer Portland Press Herald
SOUTH PORTLAND — School officials plan to hold meetings in each of the city's five voting districts to discuss rebuilding plans for South Portland's aging high school.
Officials are trying to build support for options to be placed on the November ballot as part of an advisory vote. Officials want voters to approve a final plan in the fall of 2009.
The first meeting is at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Skillin Elementary School gym.
By doing a better job educating the public, officials hope they will avoid a repeat of what happened last November, when voters, by a ratio of 3 to 1, killed a proposal to borrow $56 million for a renovation and addition project at South Portland High School.
School officials believe they will have more success this time if they get out to the city's neighborhoods and educate voters about what's at stake.
"Last year, we were asking them to come to us. In this case, we are going out to them," said Superintendent Suzanne Godin. "That may help."
The project would have paid for tearing down and rebuilding part of the current high school, sections of which were poorly constructed and are plagued by drainage problems.
The plan also called for fixing the roof, repairing the heating, ventilation and stormwater removal systems, removing asbestos and complying with federal disability access standards.
The original portion of the school was built in 1952, and the addition was built in the 1960s.
Two parts of the plan were controversial: establishing a $1 million artificial turf athletic field and constructing a second gym.
Officials said the old Beel Gym, which has two levels, does not meet modern safety and accessibility standards. Meeting those standards would be expensive and also reduce seating capacity by 25 percent.
The plan called for moving all public events, such as graduation ceremonies and school assemblies, to the new gym, and using the old gym for gym classes and scrimmages.
Bringing the old gym up to code would cost almost as much as building a new gym, said Polly Ward, the school department's business manager.
She did not provide an estimate of that cost.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=204438&ac=PHnws
Jill Brady/Staff Photographer
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
