A new school could be built in the yellow area at the top right of this map of the Greely campus in Cumberland. Contributed / Carroll Associates
Plans for a 70,000-square-foot preK-Grade 1 school on the existing Greely campus include the option to later add six more classrooms if needed.
The plan avoids overcrowding issues in the future, architect Steve Blatt said at the Cumberland-North Yarmouth School Board meeting Monday night.
“Without doing site work, foundation work, or ripping up the campus, we can add six classrooms,” Blatt said. “We have done it in several different communities, and it has worked well.”
The SAD 51 board voted in November to explore an on-campus option for the new school, which could be built on 2.3 acres near the intersection of Main Street and Tuttle Road. Over the last month, Stephen Blatt Architects and landscape architects Carroll Associates have been working on design plans for the two-story building.
“We want our buildings to be handsome, but we really want them to work well,” he said.
Plans also provide for a better flow around the campus, landscape architect Pat Carroll said, with the idea that students and staff won’t have to leave campus to get from one building to another.
“Hopefully, this will lead to some pretty major improvements within the campus,” he said.
Primary access to the school would be through the Main Street entrance.
School Board member Timothy Valenti of North Yarmouth asked Superintendent Jeff Porter why the new school shouldn’t be built as big as possible now rather than later.
Current projection numbers suggest that the preK-1 school wouldn’t need the extra six classrooms for at least 10 years, Porter said.
“We’re not sure yet if it’s absolutely necessary,” he said. “There’s a lot of flex space built into this design, which I feel comfortable with right now.”
A joint meeting with the Cumberland Town Council and the North Yarmouth Select Board will take place Tuesday, Feb. 13, to go over the site plans again, School Board Chair Leanne Candura said.
In March, final plans for the on-campus model will come back to the board. The board will vote whether to move forward with that plan or with an initial plan to build the school at 80 Gray Road in North Yarmouth, which has not completely been taken off the table. A November 2022 proposal for the Gray Road site was overwhelmingly defeated by voters.
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