CAMDEN — In school construction circles, all eyes are on Camden and the five-town Community School District.

That is because the CSD created a vehicle aimed at jump-starting new school construction at a time when the state is still playing catch-up to the money woes of the 1980s.

Though there is a long waiting list and there is little money in state coffers for school construction, special legislation passed last session has allowed the towns of Camden, Rockport, Lincolnville, Appleton and Hope to move ahead with plans for a $21 million district high school in advance of state funding. School superintendents around the state are taking notice.

“We’re getting a lot of intense scrutiny,” CSD Project Administrator Ken Smith said. “Not only from the state, but from communities as well. I know Falmouth and other systems are looking to see how this works out.”

Under the plan, communities are now allowed to make their own school financing arrangements in anticipation of being reimbursed by the state at a later date. The Camden area is on the list for a new high school but would have to wait until 2001 before the state would even consider funding a project.

With the change in financing, the CSD can borrow construction money in advance and begin work on a new school long before its scheduled date. The towns will pay the interest on the bonds while waiting for the state to begin the process of reimbursement. To date, the five towns have raised $250,000 to get the project rolling and expect their $21 million high school to receive state Board of Education concept approval in December.

And what a school it is. Designed by Harriman Associates of Auburn, the 128,000-square-foot building resembles a futuristic spacecraft docked to a space station. The three-story brick structure will have about 60 classrooms, an 800-seat auditorium-performing arts center, student union, library and gymnasium. There will be a minimum of three athletic fields as well as an all-weather track on the 57-acre site, which is located off Route 90 in Rockport.

The classroom space is broken down by discipline, a design Smith referred to as “the cluster schools concept.” Separate sections will house mathematics and sciences, humanities, family and consumer science, and special education. Each cluster will have its own building. But unlike a college campus, the high school’s clusters will be connected by hallways.

Students from the five towns currently attend the antiquated and undersized Camden-Rockport High School in Camden. Although school enrollment projections at C-RHS are reaching the 650 level, the new high school is designed to house 800 students. State law now permits districts to add 25 percent to building projects in anticipation of future enrollment.

“The law was changed because we were seeing a lot of trailers in the parking lots of new schools,” Smith said, referring to portable classrooms. “They found out the hard way that you couldn’t build to current enrollment.”

According to Smith, state and local taxpayers will be responsible for about $16 million of the $21 million project. The other $5.2 million will be raised through private donations by Friends of the CSD, a group of community volunteers dedicated to education. That money will be used to fund the auditorium, student union, music rooms and running track.

“It’s wonderful that the community is coming together on this school,” Smith said. “With the help of the Friends this school is going to be a real community facility. Our adult and community education programs we envision as being larger than the school population. We want the school to be used all year round.”

Although there have been discussions about a new high school in Camden for years, this is the first time the towns of Appleton, Hope and Lincolnville have banded with the SAD 28 towns of Camden and Rockport. Those two towns were often perceived as unwilling to share power with the smaller communities. As a result, the three smaller towns have K-8 school systems and pay tuition to send their pupils to C-RHS.

The willingness of Appleton, Hope and Lincolnville to join with Camden and Rockport not only signals a new era of good feeling, but also helps lower the individual towns’ share of the high school’s construction costs. Under the five-town CSD, the state will reimburse about 85 percent of the construction cost of the new high school. Were Camden and Rockport to go it alone, SAD 28 residents would have had to raise the 85 percent through their property taxes. According to Smith’s calculations, the CSD towns’ total annual cost of its share of the $16 million construction bond will be around $170,000.

“Everyone has cooperated on this project. From the towns and town officials to the Friends of the CSD,” Smith said. “I’ve built a lot of schools in my time, but I’ve never seen so much cooperation.”

If all goes as expected and the voters approve the project during a special election in the spring, site work on the school should begin during the summer of 1998 and construction in early 1999. Planners hope to have the new high school ready for the first day of school in September 2000.