Saco School Board heard an update on the school construction process Aug. 24. The city learned some time ago it had been approved for the state’s school construction program to replace Young School and is considering others. Journal Tribune file photo
SACO — School officials here are hoping to nail down a location for a new Saco school or schools to put to the Maine Board of Education in January or February at the latest.
That would be the necessary timeline in order for Saco citizens to vote on a site proposal for new school construction on the June ballot, Superintendent of Schools Jeremy Ray told the Saco School Board Aug. 24.
While city-owned land around Saco Middle School remains in the mix, the focus is now on property the city purchased a few years ago at 841-853 Portland Road (Route 1), known locally as the Clair properties.
School officials had initially focused on industrial park land owned by Sweetser, but two weeks ago Sweetser officials said that the property is not in the offing.
“A lot of the pieces — the traffic study, onsite improvements, land, all of those things now need to go onto the front burner because that was the number two site,” said Ray of the Route 1 land parcels. He said he knew there was community interest in the Saco Middle School site and has asked City Administrator Bryan Kaenrath and Public Works Director Patrick Fox about easements on the property, a proposed connector and where that stands.
He said the ability to have the required studies completed in time jeopardizes whether a June vote on the school site could be held, a key part of the 21-step process under the Department of Education’s construction program.
“Those industries are just like any other, their plates are full and it takes time,” said Ray of companies that perform traffic counts and other studies. He noted traffic studies must be done when schools are open to get the proper figures.
“Based on where we are today, it will be extremely difficult to have a June vote,” said Ray in a Friday, Aug. 26, email. A June vote is part of the original timeline on the path to new school construction.
“I caution there are only so many times we can kick the can down the road before we jeopardize our ability to move forward,” Ray told the School Board. “I’d hate to see this project continue to be pushed down the line and miss the shot at this. We need this for our community, for our students; we need to replace the buildings we’re in.”
School Board member William Gayle asked if the state had imposed a deadline.
“Not yet,” said Ray, but he noted there are laws about when an official vote must take place once the state Board of Education has approved site selection.
“Can we do traffic studies concurrently on the two sites to keep us flexible?” Gaye asked.
“You can, at a local cost,” said Ray, adding the two studies likely could not be done simultaneously, so doing both, one after another, could result in an additional delay.
Ray said he hoped to provide the school board with a more focused timeline next month.
State DOE guidelines require that schools funded under the state construction program have at least 20 acres, plus one additional acre for every 100 students, which adds up to about 34 acres.
About 27 proposed sites were examined, with three emerging as the best possibilities. With Sweetser land unavailable, the so-called Clair properties and Saco Middle School land remain. On Aug. 24, Ray asked to the public to be in touch if other sites might be available — but he also noted that too might delay the process.
Saco public schools educate children in Pre-kindergarten through grade eight. The city pays tuition to the private Thornton Academy for Saco high school students.
School officials have been eying three options for two school buildings rather than one large structure. The first two options would see two school buildings constructed in the process; the third would see one now and one at some further unspecified time in the future, with continued use of the 100-year-old C.K. Burns School until that happens.
Ray in a July interview said the Department of Education’s school construction program is prepared to pay for most costs of one new school building — Saco schools came up on the state school construction finding list a couple of years ago — but is not prepared to pay for one large “mega school” with about 1,400 students from Pre-Kindergarten through grade five.
But, he said at that time, the DOE is prepared to “stretch a bit,” provided the city finances a second school building.
Doing so would mean Saco public schools would be comprised of two elementary schools, and Saco Middle School.
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