Loranger Memorial School in Old Orchard Beach, which serves grades three through eight, is one of Maine’s “worst functioning” school buildings, according to Regional School District 23 Superintendent John Suttie.

One wing of the school is nearing 90 years old, and the other wing is nearly 60 years old. The school has structural problems, does not efficiently heat up or cool down, and is not compliant with accessibility standards, Suttie said.

This year, the school ranked third on Maine’s “final priority list” — a list of 95 school construction projects that seek state funding to fix aging and deteriorating buildings. From there, the state selects how many schools it can afford to rebuild.

RSU 23 did not make the cut.

Documents dated Nov. 13 on the Maine Department of Education website show it plans to fund only the first two priority schools: the Dike Newell elementary school in Bath that was badly damaged by an arsonist in 2022, and Frenchville’s Dr. Levesque Elementary School that was damaged by an electrical fire in 2021.

The state only approves a small number of projects to fund every seven years. In the 2010-11 cycle, 16 schools were approved for construction projects. In the 2017-18 cycle, just nine were. This November, it was two.

“It is frustrating, because at the end of the last cycle we were 12th on the list,” Suttie said. 

School construction costs have been on the rise in Maine. A recent Maine Monitor report on the $156 million price tag for the Windham middle school — the most expensive public school construction project in Maine to date — showed how demand for out-of-state labor, building codes and tariffs can contribute to cost.

Maine statute only allows the state to select projects for each seven-year cycle that it can “undoubtedly” fund, which depends on the scope and size of the projects or debt limits, Maine Department of Education spokesperson Chloe Teboe said in an email.

While some projects from the priority list could receive funding later in this cycle if it’s available, pinning down when that could happen is impossible.

The governor’s Commission on School Construction, tasked with reviewing school project needs, released an interim report of its findings in April, stating that 500 of Maine’s 600 schools will need to be replaced or renovated in the next two decades. The commission “conservatively” estimated the cost at $11 billion.

Roy Gott, a member of the commission, said the group is working to make recommendations for how the state should address school construction challenges, such as a lack of funding, for next year. He cautioned that there are no simple solutions to the rising cost and complexity of getting school projects off the ground.

For instance, the commission discussed the idea of building smaller schools, especially as the number of students in Maine public schools continues to decline. One challenge, however, is that the number of special education students is on the rise. These students may need additional support outside of the general classroom, requiring more rooms in a school, Gott explained.

School districts could also shrink and consolidate their buildings or infrastructure, but that’s ultimately a local decision and often controversial, he said.

THRILLED IN BATH

Regional School Unit 1, which serves Bath, Arrowsic, Woolwich and Phippsburg, had been anticipating news of winning the state funding, and hopes to start pursuing a project in an “expeditious” manner, said Superintendent Patrick Manuel.

“We’re thrilled,” he said. “To be in this position now, we’ve had to be patient.”

The district tried to get emergency state funding to retrofit a space after the arson incident but did not get it. Now with the funding, it aims to put the students at the Fisher-Mitchell elementary school and those who were at the Dike Newell under one roof. 

As for next steps, the Bath district has already begun advertising to secure architectural and engineering services. 

FRENCHVILLE CONSIDERING CONSOLIDATION

Benjamin Sirois oversees multiple districts in northern Maine, including School Administrative District 33, which serves Frenchville and St. Agatha.

He said having all the district’s students under one roof after the elementary school fire has been working. It’s possible the district could use the state funding to rebuild a new K-12 school.

However, the rural community is weighing another option: district consolidation. 

Frenchville, St. Agatha and nearby Madawaska, which is in a separate school district, formed a reorganization committee this year to explore what consolidation would look like for their communities. 

“We’ve had the interest of RSU 33 and the town of Madawaska joining together to redefine RSU 33, whereby Madawaska becomes a part of that regional school unit,” said Richard Lyons, the Easton schools interim superintendent who was tapped by Sirois to facilitate the committee. “That’s the effort that we’re focusing on.”

Sirois said there is local interest in building a regional school, which would require reorganization. A majority of school buildings in the region are aging, and rebuilding a school to replace three or four older buildings may be the best way forward, he said.

“The state of Maine is going to have to think about consolidation projects similar to what we’re attempting to do. I’m hopeful that the state realizes that incentivizing these types of projects is the future, especially in rural Maine,” Sirois said. “There’s a quality to small schools, but when small schools get too small, it comes with some lost opportunities for some students.”

STANDISH IN A HOLDING PATTERN

The Bonny Eagle School District, or School Administrative District 6, serves Buxton, Hollis, Limington, Standish and Frye Island. For this round of state construction funds, Superintendent Clay Gleason said the district planned to pitch a consolidation effort for as many buildings as the district’s five communities allowed. 

But since the George E. Jack elementary school in Standish ranked fourth on the state’s priority list, SAD 6 is stuck in a holding pattern. In the meantime, the district will pursue smaller renovation grants for smaller projects such as replacing rooftop ventilation units and boilers, Gleason said.

He estimated the district has $40 million in repairs just to maintain and update the aging buildings that it has.

“We don’t have the financial wherewithal to really do any significant projects on our own, without any support,” Gleason said. “The community in MSAD 6 has a very small tax base.”

Some schools opt to pursue projects on their own without state construction funding. This fall, Scarborough residents approved $140 million in bonds for school construction projects across the district. Two of the district’s schools ranked in the 30s on the state’s list, and two more ranked 59th and 60th.

WAITING IT OUT IN OLD ORCHARD BEACH

Suttie said he remains hopeful that RSU 23 could still receive funding this year to ultimately build a new school and consolidate Loranger Memorial School and the district’s Jameson Elementary School, which is number 58 on the state’s list, into one new building.

If RSU 23 were approved for state funding next year, Suttie said the lengthy construction process would still push the opening of any new school into the 2030s. 

For now, RSU 23 has to make Loranger and Jameson schools last the next six years at least, Suttie said. This means making sure the buildings stay safe and conducive to student learning, but not spending money on more cosmetic elements while the district waits for funding. 

“We’ve been dangling at the top of that list now for two cycles, since 2017,” Suttie said. “We’re way too close to being to the top of the list to put out a locally funded bond because it doesn’t make any sense.”

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.