SOUTH PORTLAND – After 19 months of construction, Phase I of a $47.3 million overhaul at South Portland High School is complete and the doors are ready to open to the public, while work continues apace at the new Wentworth Intermediate School in Scarborough.

The newly completed wing of South Portland High School will open to students on Monday, Jan. 6. But first, school officials will conduct an open house for parents and taxpayers. Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 5, the doors will be thrown open for tours of an addition, which includes a new kitchen and cafeteria, a lecture hall, a new library redubbed the learning commons, administrative offices, science classrooms, weight and fitness rooms, locker rooms, the technology education room, a robotics room and a fully renovated Beal Gym.

“We are very excited to be presenting this part of the building to the community,” said Superintendent Suzanne Godin, who said the project is “on time and on budget.”

Work now turns to the 1970s-era annex located between Beal Gym and the oldest section of the building. That section, built in 1952 as a junior high school, will be renovated, while a new building will go up in place of the annex. That will make the first significant impact on students from the project, as, according to Godin, four portable buildings, each holding two classrooms, will be needed for the second half of the 2013-2014 school year. Also, Mountain View Avenue will be closed but for a 12-foot emergency lane for fire and rescue vehicles, through completion of the rebuild at the end of 2014.

That project will eventually enlarge the high school by about 100,000 square feet, at an eventual cost of $54 million on the 20-year, $41.5 million bond approved by voters in May 2009. Based on numbers provided by city Finance Director Greg L’Heureux, the balance of the $47.26 million project is covered by a $2.7 million reserve built up by the school through taxation during the last few years, plus $600,000 in usable budget surpluses, $678,350 in energy performance credits, and $1.78 million from an approved-but-as-yet-unused 2010 capital improvement bond for security and electrical systems.

Fees and services on the project, most going to architectural firm Harriman and Associates, come to $3.33 million, while administrative costs are slated to top $4.67 million, although that includes a $1.67 million contingency fund.

According to Godin, the impact of the new debt over the 20-year life of the bond, counting debt to be retired and reserve funds, will be $1,724 on the median home valued at $200,000. That comes to an additional $86 per year, or about $7 per month, she said.

The building is designed to accommodate 1,100 students, based on a December 2008 enrollment projection drafted by Planning Decisions, a research and analysis firm based in South Portland. The current head count in the school is 892.

In November 2011, Scarborough voters approved a $39.1 million bond to replace Wentworth Intermediate School with a new, 163,000-square-foot structure for children in grades 3-5, replacing a building erected in 1962 to be the town’s junior high school. After administrative, architect and engineering costs and furniture purchases, $31.2 million was budgeted for construction, but taxpayers got a pleasant surprise when the low bid by Arthur C. Dudley Contractor/Builder Inc. of Standish came in at $27.94 million. Even better, Town Manager Tom Hall was able to work a refinancing deal on the town’s outstanding debt, the net result of which was no impact to tax bills from the project.

Building committee chairman Paul Koziell reports the Wentworth rebuild is “on time and on budget.”

New developments include the unveiling of a memory brick campaign, in which the school is selling bricks to line the front entryway to the school, which can be engraved with personal messages.

Building committee members hope the bricks, which go for between $50 and $150, each, will cover the cost of an art component, one of several items cut from the budget before the public vote, in hopes of trimming the bond to a level taxpayers would support.

In November, the building committee retained Michele Gutlove, a glass artist from Natick, Mass., from a field of 20 applicants to spruce up the new school. Her creation, expected to cost $40,000, will utilize more than 160 glass pieces to form an impressionistic image of Scarborough Marsh on the ceiling around a skylight in the school lobby.

The new Wentworth School is scheduled to open to students in September 2014, at which time work will begin to demolish the existing school.

A CLOSER LOOK

A ribbon-cutting ceremony on the new wing of South Portland High School will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 5, with an open house to follow lasting until 3 p.m.

To purchase an engraved memory brick to line the front entryway of the Wentworth School in Scarborough, visit www.bricksrus.com/order/wentworth/.

Workers brave cold temperatures and a stiff breeze to check an exterior wall atop the new Wentworth Intermediate School in Scarborough last week. The new school, which will replace the existing school, is scheduled to open to students in September 2014.The new cafeteria at South Portland High School will be part of a Jan. 5 public open house.