As an architect with 25 years of experience, who works in Portland and is involved in commercial-institutional projects, I fully support the process leading up to the proposed design of the new Cape Elizabeth elementary and middle schools. The selection of Colby Engineering and Simons Architects occurred through a formal request for proposal and interview-selection process. Both have ample representative experience and projects that attest to their ability to design a school building and infrastructure.

Whether to build new schools in Cape Elizabeth is a contentious question. There are myriad reasons for building new over renovating, even though the cost to build new is high (because of smaller renovations, Band-Aid fixes and escalating construction costs) and will lead to a heavy tax burden for Cape Elizabeth residents. My family, ourselves not wealthy, will gladly take on this tax burden to give children – not our own children, who will have already graduated – new schools that support 21st-century learning.

Jessica Johnson
Cape Elizabeth

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