After deciding contested races for the district board of directors in June, residents of the five towns that make up RSU 40 will face another big decision this November – whether to authorize an $81 million renovation and addition bond covering all district schools.
Medomak Valley High School and Miller School are the centerpieces of the bond approved for the ballot by the board in May, standing to receive $41 million and $16 million in renovations and additions, respectively. Administrators at both schools have said changes in education create new challenges in their buildings alongside the natural aging process.
Rounding out the proposal is $600,000 for Medomak Middle School, $2.4 million for MVHS and Medomak Middle School’s athletic programs, $2 million for Warren Community School, $3 million for Friendship Village School, $1.2 million for Prescott Memorial School, and $4.2 million for Union Elementary School.
Districtwide, another $10.4 million would cover a bus garage to be built comor bought, an architect design, and $4.6 million in contingency funds.
RSU 40 Facilities Director Brian Race said the terms of bond have not been finalized, but it would likely be financed through the Maine Municipal Bond Bank for 20, 25, or 30 years. He said he is waiting in hopes interest rates will drop, and that potential tax impact information is not available.
“I anticipate we will have it set before November,” he said in May.
Waldoboro students begin their public education at Miller School, which serves students from kindergarten through sixth grade and is set to add pre-kindergarten this fall through a state grant.
Administrators said some of its challenges stem from changes in education since the building’s first wing was constructed in 1953.
Increased student support programs — special education, interventionists, speech therapists, occupational and physical therapists, English language learner support, gifted and talented programs, and more — require numerous private rooms rather than the large classes of students with one teacher that the school was designed to accommodate.
By Maine Department of Education guidelines, the 43,204-square-foot building was 15,000 square feet too small for its population this past year.
Principal Julia Levensaler, who has worked at Miller for 33 years, said the last addition to the school was constructed in 1993.
Since then, “We have been losing space and losing space,” she said in May. “There is literally no more room.”
Staff members work with students in former closets, the basement, the library, stairwells, hallways, and a windowless former bathroom. Health and Spanish educators teach off of rolling carts.
The school’s academic interventionist works in “the hot closet,” a small room so called because ventilation pipes give off so much heat the door must be left open all day.
“People kind of dread talking to us at this time of year because they might have to go somewhere not good for kids,” Levensaler said. “It’s a trickle-down effect.”
She said this shuffling can affect morale. She recalled telling a former employee that she had to move down to the building’s windowless basement, where the walls leak when the snow melts.
“We move people around every year, and there are places people don’t want to go. That can be discouraging,” she said. “We can lose people because of that. Good people.”
The basement is home to occupational and physical therapists in a former storage room. The children they serve have mobility challenges and sensory issues, and must go down a flight of stairs to reach the room.
Music classes no longer have a dedicated room and now take place on the stage that opens onto the gymnasium, where lunches are held. Levensaler said this setup affects the scheduling of classes around lunch periods.
Assistant Principal Jamie White’s office is also used for special education, remote speech therapy, and students pulled out of class. Staff has use of three single-stall adult bathrooms in the building, one of them inside the nurse’s closet-sized office.
Due to of the building’s aging pneumatic heating controls, classroom temperatures vary by 10 degrees, according to Race. Across district schools, a conversion of cast-iron boilers to propane is planned to save money and make repairs possible. Several do not have generators for power outages, which is also addressed by the bond.
The school’s kitchen, a priority on the bond issue, is undersized and poorly laid out, Race said, along with the playground and parking lot.
Levensaler said she has been talking about the need for more space since she became principal 18 years ago, and “people are sympathetic, but it’s expensive.”
Proposed work on the school, should the bond article pass, will add two additions at $6.3 million, creating an additional 12,320 square feet, and renovations totaling $5.9 million. Additional student space would be joined by changes including asbestos abatement, security upgrades, a new fire suppression system, pneumatic control and valve replacements, and exterior upgrades.
Medomak Middle School, serving the district’s seventh and eighth graders, was constructed in 2011 and would receive water system, athletic, and safety and security upgrades.
Next door, the 55-year-old Medomak Valley High School also faces changes from educational offerings and deferred maintenance, which have caused accreditation challenges for nearly 20 years.
Principal Linda Pease attended MVHS and remembers its construction in 1968, when her father was interim principal.
Since then, she said, upgrades and changes to the building have been limited to roof and heating system repairs, closure of a glass corridor connecting the science and social studies wings, and a “piecemeal” subdivision of large technical education classrooms into smaller rooms used for special programs.
According to Pease, the school had over 800 students in the 1970s. Now, enrollment fluctuates between 540 and 570, but “because of programs, we’re just bursting at the seams.”
Federal pandemic relief funds were used to replace the school’s air exchange system and its windows. A new boiler is part of the renovation proposal, along with a generator.
Race identified concerns including asbestos floor tiles, electrical wiring not designed for the needs of modern teaching, and older equipment. One of the school’s two septic fields has effectively failed, and the other is in danger of doing the same, Race said.
Pease said the walls of the administrative offices are so thin there is no privacy, and that she feels there is little student pride for the school because of its appearance.
MVHS could stand to lose its accreditation through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which placed the high school on probation in 2005.
That probation was for academics and facilities; administrators made changes to get upgraded to warning status in 2017, Pease said, but cannot come into good standing without major renovations. The association does not specify how long a school can remain on probation or warning before losing its accreditation.
If that does happen, MVHS will still be operational, Pease said, but it could present challenges to students applying to colleges and prevent the school from advertising to them.
“Could you survive without it? Maybe,” she said.
The association, which evaluates schools on 10-year cycles, will next review the school’s facilities in two years. For now, the bond proposal serves as evidence of work towards the warning.
“I’ve been pretty vocal with NEASC,” Pease said of its insistence on facility upgrades. “‘Show us the money. Point me to places where I can get the money.’ They have never answered that question.”
“I know it’s a lot of money,” she said of the bond. “I live here too.”
In mid-May, teachers in several wings said that, for the most part, they had what they needed to teach their students.
“We make it work,” science teacher Ryan McNelly said. “Things are functional. We don’t know what we don’t know.”
Art teacher Brooke Holland said she has the material support she needs, though her teaching space in a high-ceilinged former auto shop classroom is “freezing” in the winter, and students cannot hear her with the industrial heater on.
Administrators at Miller and MVHS praised their staff and working environment regardless of facilities.
Members of the district’s board of directors and the public have raised concerns about the bond proposal’s price tag, timing, and the district’s regular operating budget at previous meetings, particularly referencing a time of rising inflation and interest rates in a rural area with many residents on fixed incomes.
“The board has been very attentive to the fact people don’t have a lot,” Pease said. “They’ve been concerned that people can’t do it.”
If the bond proposal does not pass in November, Levensaler said it would be a disappointment; while White suggested it could cause a shift in how staff views their employment and value to the district.
“Educators as a whole are very creative people, but that doesn’t mean it’s in the best interests of your students or staff,” she said.
Race said all items on the list are necessary projects, hence the price tag, and he believes the district has been addressing things as they break rather than planning ahead.
He said he was tasked with creating a 10-year replacement plan when hired in 2020, but could not develop one “because there are too many things that won’t make it that long.”
The current proposal was developed over three and a half years with consultation from Harriman Associates of Portland, an architecture firm with a specialization in education projects.
Race plans to host open houses at district schools this fall to answer public questions about the proposal.
If the bond does not pass, he said he will likely assess the results of the vote and feedback from planned open houses “and make a decision from there.”
For more information about the proposal, go to rsu40.org/capital-improvement-information.
