SAD 3 to vote on altered school building project

UNITY – There’s nothing like spending $19 million on a new school, then having regrets.

SAD 3 officials have been scrambling this summer, hoping to avoid that fate, even as deadlines loom for state funding of a new high school.

The board meets in special session at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22, at the Mount View library to consider asking the state to amend the district’s application for state funds for a new high school.

Instead, the district is considering asking the state to pay for a new middle school-high school.

Earlier this summer, the district’s architectural firm, Oak Point Associates, recommended building a new school over renovating the Mount View complex. Mount View, in Thorndike, includes an elementary school, a junior high and the high school.

Though board members appeared to accept the recommendation, they and Superintendent Daniel Lee grew increasingly concerned about what would happen to the Mount View complex if a new high school were built elsewhere. Mount View, a sprawling, single-story structure built in the 1960s, is plagued by air quality and other problems.

Read Brugger, who chairs the building committee, Lee and representatives of Oak Point met with Department of Education officials and learned that the state would consider funding a different project.

In fact, Brugger said, the state suggested the district think about building a new middle school-high school or junior high-senior high school complex. To deal with problems at Mount View, the state suggested demolishing all but the junior high wing and the high school gymnasium.

“This is what the state wants us to come back with,” Brugger said, “a very firm proposal on this.”

Not only were state officials open to changing the project, he said, but they also indicated they might even make more money available to cover the increased work.

If a new facility for sixth through 12th grades or a new facility for seventh through 12th grades is built, Brugger said, “It means half of our students will be attending new facilities.” And it means the district wouldn’t have to immediately seek money to renovate the deteriorating Mount View complex.

If the high school and elementary wings at Mount View were demolished, the remaining junior high wing would be home to the elementary school. That means elementary pupils would have their own gym, Brugger said, while the high school gym would become a free-standing building for use by the community.

“The idea is to keep it separate,” he said of the gym. Oak Point has advised that heating the gym with its own system makes more sense, Brugger said.

“The building committee recommended to the board that they go with this scenario,” he said. “This would solve all our problems.”

The board is expected to vote on the question at the special meeting.

Public comment will be accepted at the beginning of the meeting, but board deliberations will proceed without interaction with the public, Brugger said.

An October forum on the school concept will be scheduled soon, he said.

Meanwhile, the search for a building site continues. The district expects to name a site for the new school by the end of the year.