This map shows the proposed location of two new Saco schools on city owned parcels along Portland Road. The Saco School Department is looking to purchase the privately-owned parcel, shown here in yellow. Saco School Department image

SACO – Those engaged in school construction planning for two new Saco schools are aiming for a September meeting with the State Board of Education on site approval and concept design. They are also hoping to schedule a November referendum locally on the project to bring two new school buildings to the community.

“We are working toward a November referendum, but we still  have a lot of work to do,” School Superintendent Jeremy Ray said.

Saco School Department officials and Oak Point Associates conducted a recent public forum on school construction on March 2.

Projected enrollments put a PreK-Kindergarten School at 382 students and the separate Grade 1-5 school at 987 – though there has been a negotiation with the state education department to bring the latter enrollment figure to 1,100, which would allow for an extra classroom, school officials said.

This image shows the Maine Department of Education’s 21-step school construction process. Saco School Department image

Architects from Oak Point Associates were to meet late last week with DOE’s school security team to discuss safety aspects of the new schools.

A very preliminary estimate puts the Grade 1-5 school at around $75 million and the PreK-K school at $20-25 million, Ray said in an email Tuesday.

Maine’s school construction program would fund most of the Grade 1-5 schools, while the PreK-K school would be funded by the municipal taxpayers.

The new schools are planned for city-owned parcels and purchase of  about 20 acres of privately owned land on Portland Road (Route 1) at the intersection with Millbrook Road. The Eastern Trail runs along the back of the property. The Saco School Board voted to move forward with that site last fall after an earlier location turned out to be unavailable.

Oak Point Associates interior designer Sarah Smith told the audience that the PreK-K school will be a one-story structure scaled for 4–5-year-olds. The Grade 1-5 school would be “a school within a school,” she said, with a two-story wing for Grades 1 and 2; the second wing for the remaining grades would be three stories.

Some in the audience expressed concern about increased traffic in the area. Oak Point Associates landscape architect Allison DeMatteo said the Maine Department of Transportation has indicated it would prefer two entrances to the school property – one on Portland Road for buses, and the second on Millbrook Road, for parents picking up and dropping off  their children and for use by faculty. As well, she indicated some communities adopt policies to stagger pick up and drop off times to reduce congestion.

There would be a quadrangle between the two schools for activities like gardening, and a play area is also planned.

The two new schools would replace Saco’s older elementary schools and the current PreK-K facility.