If all goes well, SAD 51 hopes its pre-K and Grade 1 school on the Greely campus will open its doors to students by August 2027, according to Cumberland-North Yarmouth Superintendent Jeff Porter.

In the near term, school leadership will begin advertising for positions on a building committee and various subcommittees that will be involved in specific parts of the project – such as the artificial turf athletic field.

The $53.5 million overhaul of the Greely campus, narrowly approved by SAD 51 voters in June, will include the new school, four new classrooms and renovations at Mabel I. Wilson School, a new maintenance facility, traffic and parking design changes and the turf field.

Porter, who presented a project timeline at a school board meeting last week, said school officials are now working on a new contract with the architect for the project, Stephen Blatt Architects, engaging in conversations with abutters, finalizing financial plans, starting the permitting process, and closing on an abutting property, a half-acre parcel, that was included in the recently passed school bond.

The architect is slated to complete design developments for the project by October 2024. Those designs will be negotiated with the to-be-appointed building committee, which will offer feedback, and will then go to the Cumberland Planning Board in late fall, Porter said.

Construction documents for the project will be complete by March 2025, and the new school, additions at MIW school, and the artificial turf field will go out to bid in April 2025. “These dates are pretty much set by the architects, so there’s not a lot of wiggle room,” said Porter.

Bidding for the new maintenance facility is on a different timeline. That building is currently located in the space slated for the new pre-K and Grade 1 school, so it must be constructed at its new location before construction on the new school can begin, Porter said. That part of the project likely will rely on a separate contractor.

Per Porter’s timeline, the maintenance building will go out to bid in January 2025 and construction will wrap up in July 2025. Around that time, construction on the new school and MIW additions will begin. Construction on the turf field will run from May 2025 to August 2025, he said.

“The turf field (will) most likely be a different contractor,” said Porter, because “it’s going to be a smaller project, more specialized.”

Construction timelines may change as the architects get more information, he said.

The building committee, which will be appointed at a Sept. 5 school board meeting, will be made up of board members; school staff members, like teachers, administrators and the facilities supervisor; a few parents; representatives from the town of North Yarmouth and Cumberland; the architects; and Porter, according to the superintendent’s presentation.

Seven subcommittees will handle various aspects of the project, such as the interior and furnishings.

Porter said many of the subcommittees will entail a high amount of participation for a couple of months, and then they’ll wrap up. Some of them, like the security systems subcommittee, are already formed.

There are also two “really important committees” that will operate fairly independently from the building committee, Porter said. A site plan committee, which ideally will be in place before the school year begins, will deal with permitting and getting necessary site plan paperwork to the Planning Board, he said. The turf field committee will tackle issues like what material will be used for the field.

“There is certainly special interest in the turf field, (and this way we can) have those conversations targeted,” said school board Chair Leanne Candura.

Health concerns stemming from artificial turf fields emerged as a sticking point for those who opposed the field’s inclusion in the school bond. Testing of artificial turf material has revealed detectable amounts of PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals.”

Later in the summer, the school district will begin advertising for participation in the building and subcommittees, including with notices in the newsletters sent out by both towns, Porter said.

Cumberland and North Yarmouth voters approved a $53.5 million bond referendum by fewer than 50 votes on June 11, giving the district the OK to move forward with the project. While the total vote count for all of SAD 51 pushed the project over the 50% mark, North Yarmouth residents voted it down 808 to 704. Cumberland residents voted for it, 1,583 to 1,430. Ahead of the vote, the $3 million artificial turf field, which was lumped into the bond total, emerged as the most contentious part of the project.