Just a week away from their first look at the 2015-2016 budget proposal, Regional School Unit 5 directors are busy on another important front – planning a $14.6 million renovation of Freeport High School.

The school board will review a first draft of the spending proposal Wednesday, March 25, at Freeport High School, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The annual budget meeting is set for May 27 at Freeport High, and the referendum votes in Durham, Freeport and Pownal are scheduled for June 9.

On March 11, the school board approved a $1 million bond anticipation note, mostly to pay PDT Architects of Portland, which has been planning the renovation with the Freeport High School Building Advisory Committee. That money becomes available on April 15, according to Kelly Wentworth, director of finance and human resources of RSU 5. The bond money itself becomes available on Oct. 15, once RSU 5 has agency approvals and contracts in place.

Architect Lyndon Keck and designer Abigail Cram of PDT Architects both briefed the board on progress with the high school renovation at the March 11 meeting. They showed slides depicting the project, and the $680,000 in savings that PDT has been able to identify, working with John Simoneau, building committee chairman. The savings is necessary because of the effect of inflation since the original bond was passed in November 2013.

Cram told the board that in the design, some new space has been devoted to an informal gathering area/studying space. Students love such spaces, she said.

Design development ends on April 8, she said. The project will go out to bid in September, and construction is to begin in October.

Keck told the board that because the project is locally funded, “bidding doesn’t have to be opened up to everybody in the world.” Director Michelle Ritcheson of Durham asked if that means the board still must adhere to a low bid, and Keck said that is the case.

Director Valy Steverlynck of Freeport asked where students will stay during the construction process.

“There is money in the budget for four additional classroom modules, in addition to the two existing ones,” Keck responded.

Simoneau, who lives in Durham, said earlier that the committee had reduced the size of the addition by one classroom, and reduced the amount of outside walls to make the building more efficient.

The old industrial arts section, located at the rear of the school, will be torn down. 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. STEM classes will be moved to a renovated classroom.

Last year, as Freeport was negotiating withdrawal, RSU 5 residents approved a $27.4 million budget – an increase of about 5 percent – by a vote of 1,264-908. Freeport residents voted for the budget, 946-366. The budget failed in Durham, 223-371, and in Pownal, 95-171. Durham residents absorbed a 6.78 increase in taxes with the 2014-2015 budget. Pownal’s increase was 6.21 percent, and Freeport’s was 3.59 percent.

PDT Architects of Portland has drawn plans for what a renovated and enlarged Freeport High School will look like. This is the entry area. Courtesy image

Copy the Story Link