SOUTH PORTLAND – Perhaps surprisingly, the start of the new school year this week will not mean much change for students at South Portland High School, which is in the midst of a $47.3 million renovation project.

“They’ll find things pretty much as they left them last spring,” said Superintendent Suzanne Godin, on Monday.

“We are meeting with officials from Harriman Architects and PC Construction every week to discuss impacts to students, but they are very, very minimal at this point, other than not having access to some parts of the building,” said new principal Ryan Caron.

Of course, there is the giant pile of loam at the front door, relocated for screening from an area behind the building because of heavy rains during the summer.

“The joke among parents is that the kids have their sliding hill back,” said Caron.

The real change, says Godin, will come after the first of the year, when what’s been built to date – the cafeteria, the lecture hall, the chemistry labs and the new three-story classroom wing – will be opened to students when they return from Christmas break, Jan. 6. At that time, crews from PC Construction will begin to demolish the 1970s-era annex, which connects the original building at the corner of Highland Avenue and Mountain View Drive, to Beal Gymnasium.

Taken as a whole, the project is on time and on budget, said Godin.

The one exception is the gym. Work crews had previously discovered that the south wall of the gym needed to be “shored up” with additional supports, but the school’s building committee was dedicated to renovating the popular gymnasium, rather than tearing it down and building something new.

During the summer, roof replacement at the gym was plagued by heavy rains, which caused work delays. More importantly, it was discovered that the inner walls of the building, built in 1954, were not connected to ceiling supports.

“There was no stability, so we had to rebuild all the inner walls, and then in working on that we discovered unforeseen asbestos,” said Godin.

The discovery put that part of the project about five weeks behind schedule and has also eaten into a $1.2 million contingency fund. Final change orders have not come through yet, said Godin, noting that the fund has about $800,000 remaining before those bills are paid.

The new locker rooms, weight room and health classrooms should open in late September. The gym itself should be ready for use by late October, in time for basketball season. At that time, the technical classroom located beneath the gym, along with a new space for the school’s robotics team, should be ready, as well.

For the start of the school year, athletic teams will continue to use a storage trailer on site as a makeshift locker room, just as they did after Beal closed last spring.

“We’re making due, really,” said Caron. “Football is the biggest concern, simply because it has the most equipment, and we are hoping to get them back in the locker rooms as soon as possible.”

Construction crews are slated to relinquish custody of the practice field back to athletic teams by October, and the staff parking lot, now used as a staging area, in January. At that time, the tennis courts will be rebuilt behind the parking area.

“Other than issues with the gym, we are right on track with the changeover of buildings in the fall,” said Godin, who said she has been pleased with how smoothly the project has gone to date.

“In some cases, construction crews were within six feet of the building last year and we never got one complaint, or even heard any concern,” said Godin, “So, as things move from behind the building to the front of the building in January, I don’t anticipate any issues from students, other than that we will be taking down part of the building, and traffic on Mountain View Drive will be impacted.”

Four portable buildings, each holding two classrooms, will be needed for the second half of the 2013-2014 school year.

“Everything is fluid because it’s construction,” said Caron. “Some of the spaces in both the new and old buildings will be re-allocated and put to other uses for a year, others will be shut down for renovation almost immediately. It’s piece-by-piece operation, but there is a pretty sophisticated plan for when each step happens.”

That renovation project will eventually enlarge the high school by about 100,000 square feet, at an eventual cost of $54 million on the 20-year, $41.5 million bond approved by voters in November 2010, based on numbers provided by city finance director Greg L’Heureux. The balance of the $47.26 million project is covered by a $2.7 million reserve built up by the school through taxation through the last few years, plus $600,000 in usable budget surpluses, $678,350 in energy performance credits, and $1.78 million from an approved-but-as-yet-unused 2010 capital improvement bond for security and electrical systems.

Fees and services on the project, most going to architecture firm Harriman and Associates, come to $3.33 million, while administrative costs are slated to top $4.67 million, although that includes the contingency fund.

The expanded high school will fit up to 1,100 students. Projections previously released by Godin did not call for South Portland High School to reach enrollment numbers greater than 1,000 for five years. However, Holland notes there’s already been a slight uptick. Although this year’s figures are not yet finalized, the school is expected to serve about about 890 students this year.

A CLOSER LOOK

Scarborough

The first student day for grades K-2, 3, 6 and 9 was Tuesday, Aug. 27. The first day for all other grades was Wednesday, Aug. 28.

Cape Elizabeth

The first student day for grades 1-12 is Tuesday, Sept. 3. Kindergarten starts Sept. 9.

South Portland

The first student day is Sept. 3.

As students head back to school this week, South Portland High School is still in the midst of a multi-million dollar construction project with mounds of dirt and construction cranes and vehicles on the school campus. Despite what looks like a lot of commotion, school officials say students will be minimally impacted. Photo by Rich ObreySouth Portland High School ConstructionSouth Portland High School Construction 2South Portland High School Construction 3South Portland High School Construction 4

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