PORTLAND — Presumpscot may be the smallest of the city’s mainland elementary schools, but supporters say that doesn’t mean it should constantly be at risk of being closed or not having its infrastructure needs met.

Presumpscot is just as vibrant and vital to its neighborhood as any other school in the district, according to its backers, and that’s the message they want to deliver to city officials as the School Department’s Facility and Enrollment Study Commission continues its work.

The commission was set to meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 19, in the Great Room at Casco Bay High School, and hopes to have preliminary scenarios ready for public input by late January, with a final report to the School Board in early March.

The goal of the commission is to identify any possible efficiencies in order to save costs and its mandate includes reviewing all of the School Department’s buildings, current and future enrollment and overall program needs.

While the Facility and Enrollment Study Commission does its work, the School Department is also moving forward with plans to upgrade and renovate four of the city’s elementary schools under a $64 million capital bond approved by voters in November 2017.

The schools included in the bond are Longfellow, Lyseth, Presumpscot and Reiche. The School Department is beginning the four-school project with Lyseth and the schedule for construction at the other schools has not been set.

Crystal Gamet, who is with the Family Council at Presumpscot, said this week that members of the school community believe there is “a real threat” that Presumpscot could be shut down under the facility study and the school could also get left behind in terms of the capital bond.

Those fears were shared during the annual district meeting held at Presumpscot Elementary last week, which was hosted by District 4 City Councilor Justin Costa. At the Dec. 10 meeting the Family Council unrolled a petition containing 641 signatures.

Gamet said the purpose of the petition was “to show how much our community cares about keeping the school open and getting it renovated. We love our school and (we want) city officials to understand how important it is.”

She said the petition was just one tool supporters of Presumpscot Elementary are using to get their point across.

“We want to be sure the will of the voters is honored to renovate all four schools and we want Presumpscot to stay a pre-K through fifth-grade expeditionary learning school,” Gamet said.

This week Costa said the turnout at the district meeting was “a show of strength from the community” and said “it’s understandable where the concerns are coming from,” which is why he also signed the petition.

Costa served for six years on the School Board before being elected to the City Council. He’s now co-chairman of the Building Advisory Committee for the School Department.

Costa said while the facilities study is appropriate, he’s not expecting “any major cost savings” to come out of it, as the cost of maintaining school buildings has “never been the driver” of the school budget.

Where Costa would like the commission to focus its efforts, he said, are on enrollment and staffing needs.

He said the biggest impact to the school budget is staff and while he doesn’t see the need to close any of the city’s schools, he would like to take a look at possibly re-districting because “we don’t any want under enrollment or overcrowding.”

“There are serious financial challenges coming,” added Costa, who is also a member of the council’s Finance Committee, “so we need to have an honest discussion about the least harmful way to restructure.”

Facilities commission

The Facility and Enrollment Study Commission last met on Nov. 26, when it discussed, among other items, the results of a web survey and a series of community forums held this fall designed to elicit public input on what residents value about the city’s schools and where they think costs can be shaved.

Summing up the public comment received so far, Superintendent of Schools Xavier Botana said, “overall there’s a tremendous amount of support for public education … and a lot of people also feel very strongly about the uniqueness and individuality of our schools.”

In addition, Botana said, “there’s strong support for schools grounded in neighborhoods, (along with) a recognition that we’re in a challenging place financially.”

Suggestions made by the 450 participants in the online survey and the 200 or so people who attended the community forums, include reducing busing costs by encouraging more students to walk and expanding the School Department’s partnership with Greater Portland Metro.

Other suggestions included consolidating athletics across all schools, introducing fees for extracurricular offerings – also known as pay-to-play – selling any unused buildings or spaces, increasing class sizes and closing or consolidating the smaller schools.

In outlining the community input results, Botana also acknowledged that they “are not reflective of the community as a whole and only represent a subset of the population,” meaning those who decided to take part.

Kate Irish Collins can be reached at 710-2336 or kcollins@theforecaster.net. Follow Kate on Twitter: @KIrishCollins.

Members of the Presumpscot Elementary School community in Portland collected 641 signatures over a two-week period to show city leaders how much the school means to them and why it shouldn’t be closed.