A priority list of Maine schools seeking funds for infrastructure projects that was released last month included almost 100 applicants.

Only a fraction of them are likely to be approved.

Maine funds major school construction projects every five years. Districts submit their proposals to the state, where they are scored based on factors like building conditions, unsuitable facilities and overcrowding, then ranked by priority.

During the last cycle in 2017-18, the state funded nine of 74 applicants. This year, the state received 95 applications.

Maine’s process for funding schools has long been scrutinized, and the problem has grown more severe as the state’s school infrastructure continues to age. Districts that want to renovate or rebuild a school can apply for the major project grants, but the state only has about $150 million in all to give to those applicants each five-year cycle.

For smaller projects, there’s a state loan program, although in the last cycle only about a quarter of the 100 applicants received approval. Often when districts need a new building they turn to local taxpayers through bond projects, but those can be rejected by voters who aren’t willing to take on the cost.

“Each year, the gap increases between the number of schools in need and those that are either replaced or renovated,” a state commission on school construction published in an April report. “With the current level of funding and methodology, this trend cannot improve. In fact, it will worsen.”

Last fall, Gov. Janet Mills created the Commission on School Construction to study the state’s system for funding infrastructure projects, describing the current process as inequitable and unfairly based on local taxpayers’ ability to pay.

“It’s time for a new look at how Maine pays for school construction,” she said in a statement at the time.

The commission was tasked with completing a report by April 2025, but released what it described as an interim summary at that time, saying it would need until later in the year to complete its work because of the scope and depth of the issues. The summary described the state’s school infrastructure issues as severe, noting that 500 of Maine’s 600 school buildings will need to be replaced or renovated in the next two decades, the cost of which would be comparable to the state’s entire biennial budget of about $11 billion.

The state will now decide this fall how many projects from its priority list get funding. A spokesperson for the Maine Department of Education said it’s too early to say exactly how many projects will make the cut.

WHICH SCHOOLS TOPPED THE LIST?

At the top of this year’s priority list is Bath’s Dike-Newell School, which has been vacant since an arsonist set fire to the elementary school building more than three years ago. Other projects near the top of the list include Dr. Levesque Elementary/Wisdom Middle High in St. Agatha-based RSU 33 (where an electrical fire destroyed the building in 2021), Loranger Memorial School in Old Orchard Beach and the George E. Jack School in Standish.

Coming in at number nine is historic Portland High School. The Portland district has long considered a construction solution that would bring students from all three of its high schools on to one unified campus, and submitted its application with that vision in mind.

“If we learn that any of our high schools is awarded a share of the revolving $150 million the state has in its major construction fund, we would then begin community-wide engagement on whether the new construction would be for just that school or involve consolidation of our other high schools,” Portland Superintendent Ryan Scallon wrote in a column about the project last September.

Scallon said Thursday that Portland’s ranking is promising, but he’s also keeping an eye on factors that might disrupt the process entirely, like the commission’s report and other bills being considered in the Legislature.

There’s also the matter of Portland’s other two high schools — Deering and Casco Bay — which are ranked at 36 and 37 on the list, respectively. Scallon said needs exist across all three buildings.

Portland also is applying for a unique state grant that would allow the district’s three high schools to be combined into one campus that also includes technical programs, adult education and business partnerships. That application is due in October. Scallon said the district isn’t committed to any one solution at this point, and has been conducting community engagement sessions about various options for two years.

“The idea is to have our hand raised for as many funding opportunities as possible,” Scallon said.

Lewiston’s middle school is ranked 10th on the list, but district leaders there aren’t optimistic about their chances of receiving funding.

“The number of projects done in the past have not reached 10,” Superintendent Jake Langlais told the Sun Journal, saying he doesn’t expect the state to take on more than seven. “I don’t anticipate a call saying, ‘we’re going to rebuild your school.’”

Because the state evaluates new project applications in each cycle, schools aren’t simply bumped up the list, and Langlais said infrastructure can continue to degrade during that time.

“What happens to a building in almost a decade is pretty drastic,” he said. “A number of schools in the state have faced some challenges because they landed just shy.”

When districts submit their projects to the state, they often know it’s a long shot and turn to local taxpayers in the meantime. One such project, Cape Elizabeth Middle School, is ranked at number 30 on this cycle’s list, although that’s now moot. Voters approved a long-sought, $86.5 million bond project for a new school last month.

And even after projects are approved for funding, the process can still take years. A project for a new $156 million middle school in Windham was approved during the last cycle. Construction crews broke ground on that project, the state’s most expensive to date, just last fall.