SANFORD — When the Sanford High School class of 2018 receives their diplomas on June 13 it will mark the end of an era. Not only will those Spartans head off into the real world, the students returning to SHS will find themselves in a brand-new high school and technical center when school opens in the fall.
“I think every day it’s just more and more exciting as we look at the anticipation from the community, the students, everybody just can’t wait,” said Sanford Superintendent David Theoharides. “We’ve been putting a lot of photographs online, drone videos, and people are just dying to get here. It’s just an amazing thing to see.”
The new school, which costs more than $100 million and was mostly funded by the state, is on track to be ready for students in the fall semester — and it will feature four “integrated career pathways.” There will be wings for science and technology, arts and communication, business and marketing, and health and human services.
One feature in the business and marking wing will be a full-service restaurant run by students that will be open to the public a few days a week.

“That’s actually a regional program so we’ll have students from about 23 communities that all come to school here, representing about eight school districts,” said Theoharides of the culinary arts program.
“Not only do you have a restaurant, but you could go in there and have a meal, go across the hallway to cosmetology and get your hair done, go buy some flowers and there’s even an ATM machine in there so you can get some money to pay for it all. It’s part of our business and marketing wing and we want students to be able to run a business.”
Theoharides believes preparing students for the real world should be a top priority for all school districts.
“The whole concept of the school is yes, it’s still important to get that high school diploma, but we want kids thinking down the road. Do you have a career in mind? That career might involve going to college. It might involve going into the service. It might involve going right to work or a two-year school, but at least be thinking about it,” said Theoharides. “What we’re hoping is all the teachers — both the traditional high school teachers and the technical or what we used to call vocational teachers — are all saying, ‘hey, how can we make the experience in health and human services applicable and valuable to the kids that are there.’”
The state covered over $90 million of the project, but the Sanford taxpayers chipped in over $10 million and a portion of that was used to create a state-of-the-art athletic facility.
The school will have a new 2,000-seat stadium for sports like football, field hockey, soccer and lacrosse as well as an eight-lane track.
“We’re calling it ‘Alumni Stadium’ because the alumni association has pledged $250,000 for the naming rights. A lot of which will be used throughout the school and throughout the district in a lot of ways,” said Theoharides. “The athletic stadium has seven different sports that can theoretically play there and we’re excited for the September 1 opening (football) game.”
Sanford athletes will also have a new 1,200-seat competition gym as well as a practice gym, a wrestling room, weight and cardio rooms, new softball fields and tennis courts.
“It’s been a very good process, but a long process. It’s such a massive project and you can get impatient at times but then you see some of the end results and it’s just a tremendous facility,” said Sanford Athletic Director Gordie Salls.
The new athletic facilities will mean historic venues like Memorial Gym and Cobb Stadium will no longer be used by the Spartans.
“That’s been a frequent topic of discussion whenever I’m trying to have dinner with my wife out (in Sanford). People really love those two and for good reason,” said Salls.

Salls certainly understands the affection Sanford residents have for Cobb and Memorial, but he believes they will quickly fall in love with the new athletic complex.
“There’s a lot of rich tradition in those two facilities, but I’ve said with the way those facilities are and the work that they need it’s time to move on from those facilities and offer our kids and the community a little better perspective in what athletic facilities can be,” said Salls. “I’ve said to people ‘when you come to the first game in these facilities, I think you’re going to say wow, this really is a good thing and I understand why we’re moving on from those great facilities that have a lot of tradition.’”
The new stadium will feature a synthetic turf field, which will help all teams but should be a big boost for the Sanford field hockey program.
“I think it’s a big change because the speed of the game is much different on turf,” said Salls, who knows Sanford field hockey coach Diana Walker is thrilled with the new stadium. “I know Diana has been looking forward to having the turf because we play (Thornton Academy), Portland, Deering, Scarborough, you know a lot of schools now are heading that way and I think there’s an advantage when you play on it all the time.”
Salls is also hoping the new athletic facility will give Sanford the opportunity to host regional and state championship events in the future.
“It allows us to be able to offer those to the (Maine Principals’ Association) and maybe have some state championships here in Sanford and those are things I’m looking forward to,” Salls said.
The longtime Sanford AD believes hosting state championships would be a good thing not just for the school district, but the community as a whole.
“I think it’s important that people come into this community and see all the good things that are happening. We have many infrastructure projects going on right now in Sanford with the gas line, broadband (internet) and clean energy with solar,” said Salls. “I think there are a lot of positives that are happening right now, and with this school, to make it attractive for people to move into this community. Anytime you can bring people and give them a reason to come into Sanford and see what we offer, that’s a plus for our community.”
Theoharides is excited for the opportunities the new school will bring for the Sanford community, but he is especially looking forward to seeing the students’ reaction when they first walk on the new campus.
“I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like for the kids to see this,” said Theoharides. “We’ve brought our student representatives who are on our school board down here and I’ve heard this over and over again — it seems more like a college campus than it does a high school.”
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.