AUGUSTA — A Rockland-area proposal to build a high school that places technical education and college-level offerings on the same campus cemented its top ranking on a priority list for funding Wednesday, edging out a competing proposal from York County.

The State Board of Education unanimously endorsed a Department of Education appraisal that places the Many Flags/One Campus proposal in the Rockland area ahead of a plan to build the Great Works Career and Technical School in Sanford.

The two projects fit the mold of a new model of Maine high school authorized by two-year-old legislation, and both school districts were vying for the pilot project designation.

“I think it’s an absolutely huge thing for the midcoast area,” Elizabeth Fisher, director of the Midcoast School of Technology in Rockland and a partner in the Many Flags effort, said of the board’s decision. “For the people on the midcoast to have access to higher education will just be a huge boon.”

The Many Flags project would merge Rockland District High School and Georges Valley High School in Thomaston, both of which are part of Regional School Unit 13. The combined high school would include college-level offerings from nearby university satellite centers; technical education classes; and a center offering boat building, design and engineering courses.

While the top rating puts Many Flags first in line for state construction money to build the pilot facility, the funding is still unlikely to materialize in the near future, according to Jim Rier, the Maine Department of Education’s school finance director.

Still, Fisher said, Many Flags’ top rating puts project boosters in a stronger position to raise private funds for construction.

“Now we can start to work on exactly how we’ll pull this together,” Fisher said.

Wednesday’s Board of Education decision is the latest bureaucratic twist in the process to determine which construction proposal takes priority for receiving funding.

School officials first filed applications for the Many Flags and Great Works projects in 2008, and a Department of Education review of the construction projects gave the Sanford proposal a higher score. That prompted an appeal from those at work on Many Flags.

A Department of Education review determined the rating system staff members used didn’t adhere closely enough to the 2008 legislation, and set in motion revisions to the application process.

When officials filed the Great Works and Many Flags applications again in the fall of 2009, a team of people from outside the Department of Education — made up of economic and labor experts — evaluated them and gave Many Flags the higher score.

The Sanford school department in July appealed that decision, but a Department of Education review upheld the scoring.
Sanford schools Superintendent Elizabeth St. Cyr said Sanford will continue to pursue construction of Great Works through the conventional school construction process.

Sanford High School’s current building was built in 1972, St. Cyr said.

“Our business partners are telling us it’s woefully inadequate for 21st-century jobs,” she said.

The Great Works Career and Technical School would put an expanded high school and vocational center on the same campus as an alternative education program, adult education courses and college-level offerings from nearby community colleges and universities.

St. Cyr said employers in York County — including military contractors Pratt & Whitney and General Dynamics — are gearing up to fulfill large-scale military contracts.

“They’re looking for a highly skilled workforce to get those going,” St. Cyr said. “We can train them up.”