Scarborough’s School Building Advisory Committee is getting ready to make several key decisions as it narrows in on a final proposal for a school project. Residents will have opportunities to provide feedback ahead of those decisions via a community survey and a community forum.

The community forum takes place at Town Hall and on Zoom at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30, while the survey will be available from April 29 through May 12.

The committee’s first survey, released in February when the committee was considering five design options, asked the community to weigh in on a more conceptual level. That helped them whittle the five options down to two: a consolidated K-2 school and replacing Eight Corner’s Primary School. Both options, estimated to cost over $130 million, include roughly $40 million in renovations and additions at the middle school.

“I think people have been a little inundated with all the option changes along the way, but now we’re truly down to two clear options,” said Larry Cain, vice chair of the committee. “The community can choose between two options and probably have a stronger opinion of one over the other.”

Coming with just two options, along with cost estimates and potential scope reductions, committee members say their neighbors’ input this time around will be even more critical to the success of whatever proposal winds up on the November ballot.

“Both of these options have compromises. Neither of them are the perfect solution,” said Charlie Peters, chair of the committee. “To understand how the community feels about each of those compromises and which ones they’re more likely to accept and not accept, for us, is key to having success in passing a referendum in November.”

The goal of the survey is not just to help the committee narrow down the two options to one, but also to get feedback on whether and how the committee should reduce the scope of investments at the middle school.

The committee’s target has been to settle on a solution below $130 million, based on a resident survey following the rejection of a $160 million proposal in 2023. Hovering just above that goal, there are avenues to bring the price tag below $130 million if some sacrifices are made at the middle school.

“Right now, the cafeteria is too small for the population at the middle school – they’re doing five lunches and are going to six lunches next year,” said Elizabeth von Stade, chair of the SBAC communications subcommittee, as one example. “If we were to pursue a project that did not address the cafeteria and we have a growing population coming into the middle school, that problem is going to get exponentially larger over time. So, one of the challenges is making sure that people understand what those trade-offs are and asking, ‘Are they acceptable?'”

“Related to that is the public’s appetite for us to continue to go back to them,” added Superintendent Diane Nadeau. “This is a comprehensive solution that solves major issues that we see coming down the pike. We can certainly de-scope as a cost-savings measure in an immediate way, but what if in about three to five years we start having conversations about an addition at Wentworth or an addition at the middle school?”

There are a number of differences between this year’s effort and the one that led to the $160 million proposal in November 2023.

The previous proposal was the result of the committee having a charge from the School Board to pursue a consolidated school, Nadeau said, rather than leaving the slate open like the current committee. The previous effort, which began in 2017, was put on hold once COVID-19 hit. When it resumed, some residents were taken off guard by the consolidated school model rather than having the opportunity to weigh in on multiple options. Others felt like they weren’t aware of the project until the months leading up to the referendum, and town and school leadership acknowledged that feedback was sparse throughout much of the multi-year process, before ramping up in the months before the vote.

Participation — both by committee members and the public — is much higher this time around and also easier to garner, said Jenna Martyn-Fisher, school board member and one of the body’s representatives on the committee.

“I thought it was going to be really hard to keep people engaged,” she said, noting the committee has over 20 members. “I thought at this point in the process, we might have (committee members) drop out or residents who got project fatigue, but people keep showing up, participating and really providing great feedback.”

This iteration is considered the Phase 2 committee. Those members tipped their caps to the 60 community members who were part of the Phase 1 committee, which helped provide the current members with several options to consider along with benchmarks for their decision making.

“There was great work done in Phase 1,” Cain said. “With a subcommittee for benchmarking and enrollment, and we got some wonderful data out of that – that we still use every week.”

The committee is currently considering multiple locations for both options. The Eight Corners replacement would be within 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 miles from the current school, according to the committee, as well as locations for the consolidated option that are central to the town.

Those are confidential and will not be part of the survey. Disclosing those locations would allow residents to communicate their preference, and that preference could wind up playing a big role in negotiations, namely the price, committee members have said.

An online version of the survey can be accessed beginning April 29 at the committee’s webpage, scarboroughschools.org/building-project, along with more information on the April 30 community forum. Physical copies of the survey can be picked up at Town Hall or the Scarborough Public Library beginning April 29 and must be returned by May 9.