SOUTH PORTLAND – On one side of the issue, residents of the city are calling the renovation of South Portland High School the right project at the right time at the right price. Countering that argument are residents who feel the project is too big and its $47 million price tag too expensive at a time of financial hardship for the city residents.

On Nov. 2, voters in the city’s five districts will have a chance to end the debate and decide whether to borrow $41.5 million to pay for an updated high school.

The proposal, which includes plans for a 307,000-square-foot facility, is a scaled-down version of the $56 million project voters overwhelmingly rejected three years ago. According to RenewSPHS, a group of parents and community members working to get the project passed, a second gym, artificial turf, a courtyard, 29,000 square feet of space and four classrooms – all found in the 2007 proposal – have been removed from the current proposal.

While the proposals may differ, the idea of renovating the high school has been discussed extensively during the last few years. The school opened in 1952. The Beal Gym was added in 1958 and the annex in 1962. Few would disagree that the facility has deteriorated. Problems include stained ceiling tiles, inefficient plumbing and heating systems, and a section of the annex that is separating from the original building.

During a recent tour of the school, Superintendent Suzanne Godin said the three-story building has 11 different levels, making it difficult for handicapped people to move about. Furthermore it has more than 20 entrances, including a main entrance facing Highland Avenue that is unsecured. Because of the layout of the building – with the auditorium, cafeteria, and the original part of the school serving as its three anchors – and congestion in the hallways, Godin said, students typically exit the school and cross a parking lot to get from one end of the school to the other.

“Once you walk through the building, I think the need for a new high school becomes a no-brainer,” said Jeff Selser, a spokesman for RenewSPHS.

Anna Cloutier, who has children in the first, third and fourth grades, said she became much more aware of the school’s problems during a recent tour.

“The more I know, the more passionate I become. We really, really need this in South Portland,” she said. “It’s depressing to see that kids are learning in that sort of an environment.”

Fellow South Portland parent Chris Trout is convinced the project has to be done now.

“I am even more strongly behind it now,” he said. “It seems like a no-brainer to me … It would be pennywise and pound foolish not to do it now because it is never going to cost less than it does now.”

Cloutier said she is concerned about the safety of the students at the high school, especially with the unsecured doors and students venturing outside to get to classes.

“In this day and age that seems crazy,” she said.

In September, the seven-member City Council voted 5-2 to ask the voters to borrow $41.5 million to finance the project.

“It is good for the city, the state and the country. It is good for every homeowner in South Portland,” said Mayor Tom Coward at an Oct. 2 RenewSPHS rally. “Most of all it is good for the young people, our children. It is good for the next generation or two or maybe three who will be educated in this building.”

Cloutier, who wants to make sure the high school is a place for students to grow and flourish, said the project, if passed, will be a benefit for the entire city.

“I hope parents whose children are no longer in the system or people who don’t have children see the value in this,” she said. “It is not just for my children. It is for everybody.”

Will Callender, a resident of Margaret Street who doesn’t currently have children or grandchildren in the South Portland school system, said at a council meeting last month that he supports the project because he believes in education. Every generation, he said, owes it to the next to provide a good future for them.

“These things always cost more than you want or can afford, but you need to step up when its is your turn and your generation,” he said at the time.

Board of Education member Alan Livingston, a candidate for City Council, said he is not supportive of everything in the project, but sees that this is the time to get the project done.

“It is time for a new high school to be constructed,” he said. “Am I happy with everything? No. But it is time to have a high school the city can be proud of.”

Livingston, a 1968 graduate of the school, said he saw structural problems at the school, including leaky roofs when he was a student.

“It was not a terribly well-constructed building, but it was typical of the buildings constructed at the time,” he said.

For Livingston, the concern now is not the elements of the project, but how much of a financial burden it is going to be on the taxpayers, especially senior citizens and people on fixed incomes.

If the project fails again, the Board of Education would have to determine what approach to take next. Delaying the process, according to RenewSPHS, could mean the high school’s accreditation from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges could be put on probation.

According to the policy book of New England Association of Schools and Colleges’ Commission of Secondary Schools, schools placed on warning status for facilities deficiencies are expected to develop a plan and time frame to address the deficiencies within two years and secure funding to fix the deficiencies within five years. If a school does not do that, it can be placed on probation, which is publicly known and shared. Schools on probation remain accredited while they work toward meeting NEASC requirements.

South Portland High School was placed on warning status as a result of a NEASC site visit in November 2008.

“If you don’t do as they say, you can indeed be placed on probation,” said Assistant Superintendent Steve Bailey. “When a student has a transcript to go to a college for application and hopefully acceptance, the status of accreditation is noted on it.”

The reason for the school being placed on probation, he pointed out, is not indicated on the transcript.

If the school does go on probation and the structural problems at the school are not addressed, a number of South Portland parents have said they may have no choice but to pull their children out of the school system, or even move from the city.

“The cost of us delaying is a chance of us being put on probation,” Susan Adams said last month. “If that happens we will go. We will leave town. We will have no choice but to take our local dollars and take them elsewhere.”

Cloutier said that threat is real.

“It is absolutely essential we get this done,” she said. “I know dozens of families that are ready to put a for-sale sign on their house. It is not because we don’t love South Portland. We can’t stay here if we, as a community, don’t put our children’s education first.”

“When a community begins to slide, it takes a long time to stop that and get it back in the right direction,” Trout said. “When a community gets the reputation of not caring about its schools and property values decline, it does not get turned around overnight.”

Albert DiMillo, a candidate for City Council who described himself as a critic of the project but a supporter of education, is still opposed to the project, which he said is an expansion, not a renovation.

“Supporting the school and education is one thing, but building the most expensive, largest school in the state is a totally different thing,” he said. “Everyone should support a good, reasonable project, but this is not a good, reasonable project.”

DiMillo, a retired corporate accountant, said the public is not getting the correct numbers for the project. The total cost, he said, is not the $41.5 million the voters will be asked to borrow, but rather $70 million, when taking into account the interest through the 20-year life of the loan.

He has drafted a proposal for a new high school that is $27 million less than the total cost to taxpayers and $17 million less than the proposed $47 million cost to build the plan. In his plan, which he said the city has refused to include with other documents dealing with the high school project, DiMillo eliminates the $4.5 million cost to renovate the 13-year-old cafeteria, $2.5 million for a new library, $2.1 million for team rooms, $2.2 million in renovation costs to Beal Gym and $4.5 million in what he calls excessive square footage.

Under his plan, the city would have to bond $22 million, not $41.5.

DiMillo said it is important for voters to remember that the high school project is not the only costly project that will be put out to voters in the coming years. The city has been discussing the need for a new City Hall, consolidating the two middle schools and constructing a new public works garage.

While he has been the most outspoken on the issue, DiMillo said a number of people in town are opposed the project, but they are scared to speak at public meetings.

Gary Crosby, a vocal opponent of the 2007 high school renovation plan, agreed.

“People are afraid to speak out against this because they feel they will be demonized,” he said.

Crosby, however, is not shy in explaining his position on the renovation plan.

“This is still not the right project,” he said. “I think the school needs improvements, but the way they are going about it is not the right way. This is not a renovation plan. This is a renovation project plus a large addition. They are calling it a renovation project and it is not.”

Crosby, who ran an unsuccessful bid for an open City Council seat in 2009, said it would be a waste to put $47 million into renovating the school.

“If the building is as bad as they say it is, then maybe they would be better off ripping it down and starting all over again,” he said.

He said there is no denying there is work that needs to be done at the school.

“It does need work. I’ve never have doubted that. Does it need $47 million of work? Absolutely not,” Crosby said, adding that he would rather see the school department put the money into quality teachers rather than the school plan.

Councilor Tom Blake said the condition of the school is the biggest issue facing the city right now.

“I’ve got questions and concerns [with the project]. It is a major expenditure for the community, but we really have no choice. We have to do it,” he said. “It is probably too big and we could have possible done it for less, but I am not of the mind to question professionals. I do know if we don’t do it, it is only going to get worse.”

Councilors Jim Hughes and Rosemarie DeAngelis voted against sending the proposal to voters.

Hughes said the building proposed was far too large and not something he could support. He advocated giving the plan back to the school board for further revision instead of putting it before town voters.

DeAngelis, an educator who taught previously in the school, said she supports education but cannot get behind the project, in part because of the scope of the project, which is being built for an 1,100-student enrollment, a number DeAngelis doesn’t think the high school will reach.

According to projections done by the firm Planning Decisions during the 2008-2009 school year, enrollment will be between 875 to 898 students through 2013. Beginning in the fall of 2014, enrollment is projected to increase and will max out at 1,015 by 2018-2019 school year.

The plan was originally constructed with 1,200 students in mind, but after more updated enrollment projections, the number was dropped to 1,100 students.

If the bond passes, Dan Cecil, an architect with Harriman and Associates, the firm hired to design the school, said the first phase of the project would be completed by fall 2013, with the second phase of the project scheduled for completion in 2015.

Election 2010