Cape Elizabeth is a community that values excellence in education and accordingly, voters should approve the $115.9 million school bond Nov. 8. Voting “yes” is the smart decision for our students and wallets.

This is a rendering of the entrance to the proposed Pond Cove Elementary School. Sixty-four more students are enrolled at Pond Cove than last year, including 124 kindergartners enrolled this fall – 15 more than the enrollment in any other incoming class in the past 10 years. Conceptual Design Renderings by Colby Co. Engineering and Simons Architects

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth A. Biermann is a resident of Cape Elizabeth and a member of the newly formed Advancing Cape Elizabeth Schools.

Almost everyone, including bond opponents, agrees that the schools are in serious disrepair. Crumbling infrastructure stems from the town’s choice in 1993 to renovate the rambling and piecemeal structure that is the middle and elementary schools for $11.7 million instead of building new for $16 million-$18 million. The 1993 renovation was supposed to give the town another 20 years of useful life, but now, almost 30 years later, it’s past time for action.

Since 2017, after more than 85 public meetings, expert research and analysis and thousands of hours of deliberations by school administrators and staff, School Board members, town councilors, Building Committee volunteers and community members, the choice was clear: It’s time for new buildings. Instead of kicking the can down the road again, the town has elected to plan for the future and get the maximum value for our investment.

New buildings are fiscally responsible. In 2020, the buildings in question were valued at $28 million. Given the overall poor condition of the structures, added to and patched together over the past 90 years, renovation may provide yet another 20 years of use and is estimated to cost between $83 million and $91 million. (This cost is exclusive of the millions of dollars it will cost to house students in portable trailers for years.) By comparison, the proposed project will provide 50 years of use for the two schools at a cost of $115.9 million. Turns out, it only costs about $5.86 more a month to build new!

This is a rendering of the entrance to the proposed Cape Elizabeth Middle School. Renovating the combined elementary and middle schools may provide another 20 years of use at an estimated $83 million to $91 million (not including the cost of any portable classrooms). New buildings will provide 50 years of use for $115.9 million – only $5.86 more a month than the cost of renovation. Conceptual Design Renderings by Colby Co. Engineering and Simons Architects

Pond Cove Elementary School is bursting at the seams. There are 64 students more than last year, and 124 kindergartners enrolled for fall of 2022, which is 15 more than the enrollment in any other incoming class in the past 10 years. On my tour of the school, I saw firsthand that Pond Cove’s only conference room is now a student work space, special education services are provided in closets, the technology lab is now wedged into a large section of hallway and the nurse’s waiting area for sick students is a bench in the school lobby.

Building new provides desperately needed education space. Currently, 78% of the classrooms fail to meet the Maine Department of Education-recommended minimum size and have no storage space. With new buildings we can finally have larger classrooms, allowing teachers the space needed to fully engage students in modern teaching styles, with room for storage to minimize clutter and distractions. Special education can occur both in classrooms with peers as well as in purpose-built, quiet and decluttered rooms. Current buildings were constructed in 1933 and 1948, well before the first special education laws were enacted in 1975, when such spaces weren’t needed or contemplated.

A “yes” vote for the schools creates sustainability for our future. No renovation can remediate the sprawling layout or properly solve the HVAC challenges. Let’s stop burning through more than 77,000 gallons of oil a year, leaving some classrooms stiflingly hot while others remain so cold children are bundled in jackets, hats and gloves. Typical “green” benefits of renovation do not exist for our schools, since proper renovation requires removal of almost every element of the buildings. New buildings will be a model of efficiency, saving hundreds of thousand of dollars annually and dramatically decreasing our town’s carbon footprint.

New buildings will be safer. Renovations can’t resolve the fact that the schools have a total of 29 entrances, most of which are unsupervised. In new buildings, administrators will be able to see and greet visitors; service entrances will no longer allow unrestricted access to student-occupied areas.

It’s common sense to anyone who has owned a car or home that failing to replace such an asset when it reaches the end of its useful life will result in the most costly and disruptive of emergency repairs. Our students deserve better and the community expects more. We have to rebuild our schools and now is the time. Please vote “yes” on Nov. 8 for our students, for our future.