School building fund priority set Lincolnville tops list of 92 projects

AUGUSTA – The Department of Education on Wednesday released a list of nearly 100 school systems ranked in order of need for major construction. At issue is how $150 million in state funds for school renovations will be spent during the next two years.

Lincolnville Central School – currently closed because of air quality problems – ranked first on the list of 92 school districts that have pending applications to replace or make major repairs to buildings.

The A.D. Gray Middle School in Waldoboro, Mount View High School in Thorndike and Charleston Elementary School also placed in the top 10 on the list released during a State Board of Education meeting in Augusta.

But nothing seemed assured despite a high rating.

SAD 68 Superintendent Don Siviski said he wasn’t counting on any state money for a new Charleston Elementary School. The building is closed for a number of reasons, including asbestos, poor water quality, mold and ventilation problems. The 58 students are in portable classrooms on the same site.

“I’m predicting we won’t qualify … because of our small enrollment and shrinking population. We have proved the need, but that doesn’t mean we’ll get new construction,” said Siviski, who anticipates the state will advise that the school be consolidated with the Morton Avenue Elementary School in Dover Foxcroft, 12 miles away.

Commissioner J. Duke Albanese said in a press release that the priority rankings “speak only to the level of need and do not endorse any specific solution …”

“There are places with very small schools, with shrinking student enrollments, and-or with other viable school structures with a close geographic proximity. We will be looking at many possible answers to those sorts of situations and no one can assume that the most appropriate answer is simply to replace or rebuild the existing school,” he said.

Department of Education spokesman Yellow Breen was reluctant Wednesday to predict how far down the list the money could be extended.

“People will make their own speculations,” he said. “The top 10 will feel pretty confident while others [could] feel they’re within striking range.”

The number of projects that ultimately will be funded will depend on a number of factors including estimated cost, the state’s school debt service load, and anticipated interest rates on bonds, he said.

Initial estimates on which projects are guaranteed funding will be prepared by the education department this summer. “But it may be the case that if things break our way in terms of favorable interest rates and costs of building we could go beyond those initially designated,” Breen said.

For example, during the last priority ranking the state initially designated 22 projects, but ultimately was able to include another two, he pointed out.

Meanwhile, Wednesday’s announcement found Lincolnville’s superintendent, Sue LaPlante, elated.

“Isn’t it great!” she said. “I believed we’d be somewhere on top of the list, but it’s hard to judge because I don’t have a full picture of the other 100 schools that applied. Certainly there are some schools with similar needs.”

LaPlante said she hopes a new building would be completed by 2005. Pupils currently attend school in a building constructed for the town by credit card lender MBNA at the company’s Northport conference center campus.

Mike Buckley, assistant superintendent in SAD 3, said overcrowded Mount View High School’s ranking of number five, “will assure state funding.”

“From here we need to focus on a local referendum,” he said.

Mount View applied for state funds two years ago, “but we weren’t high enough to be considered,” Buckley said. A revamped application focusing “more on the needs of a building in meeting the learning results,” may have done the trick, he said.

Superintendent Siviski said Albanese told him in January that “if we make the list he would approve us for consolidation rather than new construction.

“So I feel confident that the message is the same,” he said.

Meanwhile, SAD 22 Assistant Superintendent Emil Genest said Hampden Academy shouldn’t be counted out just yet. It only ranked 29. Two years ago it ranked 47 out of 70 projects.

“If we had scored 40, I’d say forget it. But we scored fairly well. Obviously the need is there,” he said. Overcrowded by 200 students, Hampden Academy will receive its 5th portable classroom this summer.

Genest said he would meet early next month with state education officials to review the district’s options. The school could reapply in two years, look to the Revolving Renovation Fund or proceed with renovations in small steps, he said.