The Freeport High School Building Advisory Committee, working with architect Lyndon Keck, has scaled back the high school renovation plan to the $14.6 million approved by Regional School Unit 5 voters in November 2013.

A cutback of $680,000 was necessary to make up for the effect of inflation between then and a year later, when Freeport residents voted against withdrawal from RSU 5. That vote freed up the bond money, but the committee had to find the $680,000 to make up for inflation. That it did, and then some.

“We did that and we have a little to spare,” said Keck, who works for PDT Architects of Portland. “I think we cut around $800,000.”

Keck and the Freeport High School Building Advisory Committee will update the RSU 5 Board of Directors on their progress at a meeting set for 6:30 p.m. on March 11 at Freeport High School. John Simoneau of Durham, committee chairman, said that the committee has reduced the size of the addition by one classroom, and reduced the amount of outside walls to make the building more efficient.

“We should be back on budget,” Simoneau said. “We don’t feel we’ve had to cut away value and impact programs.”

RSU 5 will tear down the old industrial arts section, located at the rear of the school. Industrial arts students go to Region Ten Technical High School in Brunswick for those classes, and that portion of the school now is home to art and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) classrooms. Plans call for the new section of the school to have a food court and classrooms on the first floor, and classrooms plus a teachers’ lounge on the second floor.

In the remaining section of the school, workers will install new windows and lighting, adjust classroom configurations and retrofit art classrooms where the cafeteria is now located.

Simoneau said that the committee has completed its study of Peck’s schematic designs. Design development of the mechanical, electrical and structural plans is next on the committee’s list. The Freeport High School Building Advisory Committee next meets on Wednesday, March 4, at Freeport High, beginning at 7:30 a.m.

“Once the drawings are in the construction phase, then we’ll bid it out to multiple general contractors,” Simoneau said. “We’re still working on all the schedules. There are still a lot of conversations we need to have on when we phase this in without disrupting student activity.”

Ideally, that would mean some work being done this summer. But the committee timetable calls for construction drawings to be started by June 1, finalized by Aug. 1 and the project going out to bid on Sept. 1. Keck expects contractors to break ground in mid-October.

“There will be some noise,” he said. “We’ll try to minimize the dust. But when you come out with a beautiful new building at the end, it will be worth it.”

Keck said that RSU 5 will bring in four portable classrooms to be used by students next fall, while the old industrial arts section of the school is being demolished.