With the $41.5 million South Portland High School renovation now approved by voters, officials there will likely soon address the city’s remaining building needs. A new or renovated City Hall has been proposed, as has a new public works building. The main library needs work, and the future of the two middle schools, Memorial and Mahoney, are in flux.
In Regional School Unit 14, the Windham-Raymond School District, officials are likewise dealing with a facilities issue whose outcome will be felt for years. Last week, the school board held the first of two public hearings to discuss the future of Raymond’s two schools, both of which are operating at half capacity. The board is proposing that Jordan-Small Middle School be closed, and its students moved to Raymond Elementary School.
In both cases, the communities may be able to learn something from the city of Westbrook.
There, the old Westcott Junior High, left vacant when the new Westbrook Middle School opened earlier this year, is now the Westbrook Community Center, home to the city’s Community Services Department, its recreation and swim programs, a senior center, the Center for African Heritage, the Second Season ReSale Shop and a food pantry. It is likely it will eventually serve as City Hall, as well, and the Westbrook Historical Society and the school district’s superintendent’s office are considering it as a new home.
The building, nearly 40 years old, is not perfect, and the city is now in the midst of a $4 million renovation project. But that pales in comparison to what a new building would cost, and the value of having a center that acts as both community centerpiece and City Hall is immeasurable.
A similar rebirth is possible at Mahoney Middle School, which in one proposal would be renovated as the new South Portland City Hall, with city’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students consolidated into Memorial Middle School. Among the ideas for a new City Hall now on the table, it is the most reasonable, especially for a city that just dedicated almost $50 million to the high school project.
As Councilor and Mayor-elect Rosemarie De Angelis has suggested, Mahoney could also house the city’s library, and its surrounding land could be used for any number of community-based purposes.
And while it is not clear that closing Jordan-Small is the right move for RSU 14, the success of the Westbrook Community Center provides hope to the residents of Raymond that the closing of a school does not spell doom for a building with such a close connection to the community.
Ben Bragdon is the managing editor of Current Publishing. He can be reached at bbragdon@keepmecurrent.com and on Twitter @benbragdon.
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