Due to school budget woes, a $41.2 million proposal to renovate and expand South Portland High School won’t go to voters this June as hoped, according to school officials.

The Board of Education met in a workshop last week and decided that the project needs to be delayed in light of an estimated $2.4 million revenue shortfall in the upcoming 2010-2011 school budget and tight future school budgets, according Ralph Baxter, a school board member.

“We all agreed we would put it off until at least November,” Baxter said. “No one wanted it to go this June.”

He said the board was concerned that if the high school proposal were to pass, it would put too great a burden on the school budget as bond payments started coming due in three years.

“There’s a potential to dig a big hole for the school department (budget) over the next three years,” he said.

However, Baxter said, the decision was a difficult one for the board at the Jan. 26 workshop.

Baxter is a member of the Secondary Schools Facilities Committee, which has been developing the high school proposal. The group had recently whittled down the cost, and was pushing for a June referendum to take advantage of low construction prices in the economic downturn.

To suddenly veer off course was “disheartening,” Baxter said. “Several of the (school board) members were kind of shell-shocked,” he said.

The school facilities committee was slated to give a presentation of the high school plan to both the school board and City Council last week, on Thursday, Jan. 28.

However, Steve Bailey, assistant superintendent of schools, announced on Wednesday, Jan. 27, that the special meeting had been canceled. Bailey, who also is facilitator of the school facilities committee, said the group now is expected to make its presentation just to the school board at its regular meeting Feb. 8.

At that meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, the board is expected to essentially take no action on the proposal, according to Bailey.

“At this point,” he said, “the sentiment to accept the project but then put it on hold due to budget concerns.”

Baxter said the board has yet to see the plan and tell the school facilities committee whether it’s complete or needs more work. “The school board has to approve the plan itself,” he said.

He said the board may discuss at the meeting when it would like to see the project go to voters. However, he said, board members are divided on a timeline. Some favor putting the proposal out in November but some think June 2011 would be a better idea, he said.

“There was no consensus whatsoever,” Baxter said.

The new development is yet another setback for plans to upgrade the aging high school, which is under an accreditation warning from the New England Association of Schools & Colleges to improve the facility in terms of health, safety and opportunities for student learning.

South Portland voters in 2007 strongly rejected a previous $56 million plan to upgrade the high school by a 3-1 margin. The latest proposal calls for a scaled-down project that would cost $14.8 million less than the previous plan.

The school facilities committee had wanted to make its presentation of the high school proposal to both the school board and the council in order to ensure that there was sufficient time to get it on the June ballot. Only the council has the authority to authorize placing referendum items on the ballot.

The committee has said that it wanted voters to approve the project as soon as possible to take advantage of the favorable construction climate and keep the price tag of the project down.

“There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best time financially,” Baxter said. “We’ll never get a better price for the construction.”

He also said that there currently are low interest rates on the bonds that would be needed to finance the project.

“All the stars lined up except for the big north star – the darn budget piece,” Baxter said.

The school facilities committee recently whittled $2.7 million from the $43.9 million preliminary price tag on the project that it received in December from the architectural firm developing the proposal. The latest cost estimate of $41.2 million is partly based on the expectation of favorable construction costs.

Bailey said the school facilities committee would reschedule its presentation to the City Council at a later date.

The school board hasn’t formally started deliberations on the new school budget, which won’t take effect until July 1. However, city schools already are expecting a shortfall of as much as $2.4 million in revenues in that budget, Bailey said. The shortfall is due to an expected curtailment in state education aid and reductions in other revenues, all due to the economic downturn, he said.

If voters approved the high school project, the cost of bonding it would be added to the tax rate. Yet, several city councilors earlier this month told the school board that they don’t want to see any tax increase in the school budget.

The South Portland Board of Education last week abandoned plans to go to voters with a $41.2 million proposal to renovate and add to the city’s high school. (File photo)