The $54.8 million school projects that would renovate and add to the middle school and completely rebuild Wentworth Intermediate will likely appear as two separate referendums on November’s ballot.

On June 14, after the Current’s deadline, the School Board and Town Council met for a workshop to discuss the plans and details for both schools. Besides answering questions about the projects, the board requested that the council consider splitting the $16.5 million Scarborough Middle School project and the $38.3 million Wentworth project into two referendums.

According to School Board Chairman Robert Mitchell, while both projects need to be done, they should be considered independently.

Town Manager Ron Owens estimates that if both voters accept both projects, the tax rate will increase next year.

The tax rate is currently $11.43 per $1,000 of assessed value. Right now, $2.66 of that amount goes to paying the town’s total debt. With both of the school projects phased into that debt, the rate is expected to rise by 9 cents to $2.75 for debt payments. By 2012, the increase will go down as other debts are paid. In that year, $3.94 will be needed to pay for the town’s debt. These figures are based on all of the town’s debt, not just the cost of the schools.

At the workshop, both the board and the council had questions of their own.

Before discussion of the projects began, School Board member Jacqueline Perry questioned the very purpose of the workshop, wondering why a majority of the council wasn’t there.

“If there are only three members of the council here, then there isn’t even a majority,” said Perry. “I think it’s ludicrous to have this meeting.”

Originally, only councilors Shawn Babine, Sylvia Most and Ross were at the meeting. Councilor Carol Rancourt arrived after the workshop was underway.

The two main concerns the present councilors expressed were about space and the demolition of Wentworth.

For the middle school, about 69,000 square feet will be added and 16,000 will be renovated, for a total building size of about 180,000 square feet. Included that addition will be seven new classrooms, including three special education rooms, a science lab, a computer lab and a health room. Part of the new space will also add a room to the gym. This 2,000-square-foot space would a multipurpose room with a mobile dividing wall that can expand the gym when necessary.

The Wentworth construction will be much more extensive. A new two-story building with a total of 46 classrooms would replace the existing school building. The plans reduce the size of the school’s cafeteria but double the size of the gym, as well as adding a 7,500-foot stage and multipurpose room separate from the cafeteria.

All new classrooms in both Wentworth and the middle school will be 800 square feet. Currently Wentworth’s average at about 725 and the middle school’s are about 700.

Rob Klinedinst of Harriman Associates, who presented the plans at the workshop, explained that the increase to 800 square foot classrooms is to meet educational standards recommended by the Maine Department of Education.

Babine said that he did not see the reasoning behind building larger classrooms. “I think that kids are actually enriched by the quality of the instruction,” he said. “Not by the infrastructure of the school.”

He added that most school board and town council members at the workshop were probably taught in schools and rooms much smaller than the proposed new classrooms.

Most said that questioning an increase of about 100 square feet to classrooms is a small detail compared to the large multipurpose rooms in both schools, especially the 7,500 square foot room at Wentworth.

“I’d like to spend some time talking about why we need a large gym, a separate multipurpose room and a stage,” she said. She added that with the YMCA coming to Route 1 in Scarborough, there will be plenty of community gym space without Wentworth.

The workshop then turned from questions about the physical plans to changes in educational models over the years and Scarborough’s educational philosophy in particular.

School Board member David Beneman argued that space and especially performance space is key to educating children at the intermediate age level.

He said that this age group is the most performance orientated and that they “like to show us what they know. It motivates them.”

Beneman said the stage and multipurpose room will be for much more than band concerts that can hold all the parents at once.

Wentworth Principal Ann Mayre Dexter agrees.

“It goes back to what we’re looking for in the educational experience,” she said.

Dexter hopes that the large spaces will eliminate the need to book South Portland’s gym to accommodate Scarborough’s performances.

“What it does for us is add equity,” said Dexter. “We have some truly inequitable spaces in our building now. We’re talking about physical spaces where kids do not have the space to spread out and do the work they need to do.”

She said that the large performance and gym spaces as well as the larger classrooms will all come together to create equal instruction for all students, something she believes is currently lacking.

Some existing rooms are large enough to accommodate science experiments are some are not. That alone, said Dexter, changes how something like science is taught from class to class. Students are not always receiving the same lessons.

Principal Jo Anne Sizemore said that larger rooms will benefit her students in the same way. “We’re not putting anything frivolous in,” she said. “We’re just maintaining our current curriculum. What this does do is increase equality between classrooms. It’s fairer.”

The four councilors also questioned the need to completely replace Wentworth rather than renovate the existing building.

“It’s very difficult to consider tearing down an old building,” said Rancourt. “I am aware of the problems, but it’s hard to accept tearing down the old building. To me, that’s the crux of the issue.”

According to Klinedinst, a renovation makes no sense.

Renovations would cost about $33.7 million, whereas a new building, including demolition costs, would come to about $38.3 million. Industry standards, said Klinedinst, say a difference that small strongly suggests building a new school.

There are many factors that contribute to such a high renovation cost, including a foundation that will not support a second floor, a lack of a sprinkler system, asbestos removal, roofing that does not meet snow drift weight requirements, playgrounds that do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, poor ventilation and air quality, leaking windows, an outdated heating system and a series of deteriorating trenches below the building.

“If you renovated you’d basically have to make those things go away,” said Klinedinst. “It’s something you don’t think about, out of sight out of mind, but it needs to be done.”

The decision to split the construction projects into two referendums was expected to happen at the council meeting on June 21, after the Current’s deadline. According to Ross, once that is done, there will be one more vote to add the referendums to the ballot and finally a public hearing will be scheduled for residents to ask questions and voice opinions.