Calais school funding faces vote

CALAIS – Voters will be asked Tuesday to approve an additional $558,783 in state funds to renovate the city’s high school and elementary school.

A special election is scheduled for Tuesday, June 24. The polls open at 9 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. at the Calais City Building.

In May 2002, voters approved an $8.8 million spending package to renovate the two schools. Delays in the project developed because the proposed bids were $900,000 more than the school architects’ estimate.

Calais City Councilor Nancy Gillis said the bids came in higher than expected because of the city’s geographical disadvantage.

Proposed cuts to the project led to criticism from area residents, who expressed concern that the schools would be shortchanged.

For school committee chairwoman Regina Taylor and superintendent May Bouchard, it meant more trips to Augusta to meet with state officials to ask for more money.

Last month, the state approved an additional $588,783, and now voters must accept the additional state funds.

If voters approve the referendum, it will be a $9.3 million renovation project.

“The state felt we needed the extra money because of where we are,” Gillis said recently. “Every child in the city of Calais should be treated as well as any child in the state of Maine.”

Plans for renovating the high school and elementary school include space for middle school pupils.

Those pupils have been in portable classrooms at the former Calais Middle School since schools officials voted to close the facility for health and safety reasons.

“The state has given us the additional funding,” Taylor said recently, “to put back some of the items that were originally in the [architectural] plans, such as a better quality window, some of the masonry work.

Also the addition onto the high school so we can move the science lab … into the new addition.”

Gillis called the vote a “no-brainer.” She said it wouldn’t cost the taxpayers any more if they approved the $558,783.

She said the loan repayment is set and will remain the same whether the $558,783 is included or not.

“By going out and voting for this referendum to accept the extra money for the school project, it’s not going to cost the city one cent,” Gillis said. “It is something the state is giving us, and we need to approve it.”

The low bidders for the construction were Buildings Etcetera of Houlton for the elementary school and Blane Casey Building Contractors Inc. of South China for the high school.