By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
    After approving a revised school budget in the amount of $41.8 million for the 2008 fiscal year on Thursday, the South Portland School Board met with the city council  to discuss another fiscal matter that will come before the city. At Monday’s workshop, the board, school administrators, and members of the Secondary School Facilities Committee were available to answer councilor’s questions as representatives from the architectural and engineering firm, Harriman Associates, gave a presentation on the proposed $55.6 million high school additions and renovations.  The council’s input was brief as the two hours allotted for the presentation were insufficient to discuss over two years worth of information.
    “Your facilities are not commensurate with the educational programs you are trying to deliver to children,” said Dan Cecil, leader of Harriman’s education team. The high school renovation project was proposed after a study was commissioned by the board in September 2004 to look at the need for rehabilitating the city’s two middle schools and high school. The committee recommended Mahoney and Memorial Middle Schools be consolidated into one school on the site where Memorial currently stands. Cecil said consolidating the schools will contribute to a “fairly competitive application” for state funding, however, the high school will most likely not be eligible for state funding.
    Cecil recommended the city not apply for state money for the high school because during the waiting period, the inflation would drive the construction costs up, and in the end the city probably wouldn’t receive the money anyway.
    Scott Pakulski, also of Harriman Associates, prefaced his presentation on the site characteristics by saying it is one of the “most complex sites I’ve ever encountered.”
    He said the project is more expensive than anticipated because of storm water management issues, which were discovered during a meeting with the Department of Environmental Protection earlier this fall.
    Cecil said off site storm water has been draining through the site and running underneath the building since the 1930s when the original building was built. The plan conceptually divides the site into parcels and calls for the installation of an underground pipe system that will discharge runoff to settlement tanks where it will be treated.
    Pakulski said a deep wet pond would need to be installed near the existing baseball field to handle all of the water draining off the fields. Pakulski called it a “very expensive pond” because it will need to be dug in an area of ledge. The site has an existing pond adjacent to the community center, which is grandfathered, but Pakulski said enlarging that pond would mean losing significant parking. Pakulski said a site analysis showed the site consists of primarily ledge and poor-quality marine clay, with the decade old auditorium built on the only area conducive to building.
    Improving traffic flow and increasing parking are also components of the current plan. Cecil said  buses lining up on Mountain View Avenue create a bottleneck and prohibit motorists from exiting and entering the site. Pakulski added there is a need to separate buses from the other traffic. To accomplish this, the plans call for a parent drop-off loop in the rear of the building and a bus loop in the front near the main entry. The plan also calls for an increase in parking from 300 to 315 spaces. Cecil said 300 spaces are not enough for the “robust” number of activities occurring after hours.
    Renovations to the building will be aimed at improving access to classrooms and educational programs for a student population of 1,200. While adding space, the plan also calls for the building to be brought up to ADA standards and made handicapped accessible. With the proposed renovations, the building will be three floors and just under 300,000 square feet. There will be a two-story addition next to the auditorium entrance on Highland Ave, although the auditorium will undergo no renovations. The “sprawling plan” will increase space for the library, art classes, computer classes, and alternative education classes. It will also bring off campus programs back to the school. Dan Robbins, of Harriman Associates, said during his budget overview, six temporary classrooms would be needed for one year to house displaced students and teachers.
    A new one-level athletic facility will be built closer to the playing fields to supplement Beal Gym, which will remain as physical education space and storage space. Councilor Jim Hughes said he was “surprised” by the decision to keep Beal gym and inquired whether the space could be converted to classrooms. Mark Reuscher, a school board member, said there is a need for more gym space in the community because practices are currently being held late in the evening. In addition to the new athletic building, the plans call for the creation of an artificial turf field that could be used for multiple activities.
     The creation of a central administrative area will improve security by allowing administrators to  monitor traffic in and out of  two main entrances. Cecil said the high school currently has 14 different entrances with no supervision. He said when schools apply for state funds, the state requires the creation of a “vestibule” to prevent people from walking in unnoticed.
    The plan calls for the demolition of the 67,750 square feet that currently comprise the annex and the library. Cecil said the annex would cost $1 million  more to renovate and keep than to demolish and rebuild. Constructed in the 1960s, the annex is on pilings and there is no lateral bracing in the building to tie the concrete walls to the rest of the structure. The library, built in the 1980s, is on a similar stilt system of  wood pilings and it will also be rebuilt.     The original building, constructed in the 1930s, will be renovated rather than demolished, but before any work can be done, a sweep of the building needs to be done to remove asbestos in the roofing and corridor walls.
    “You’ve overwhelmed me with how horrible the site is,” said Councilor Linda Boudreau. “You’ve made me question why we’re spending all this money on this site.”
    Bringing the school’s mechanical and control systems up to state codes is another major goal of the project. Cecil said the school’s steam based system is an “inefficient, energy hog” and geothermal heating and cooling systems are becoming the norm for Maine schools. Improvements to the school’s systems would be aimed at bringing the school in line with modern efficiency standards and the LEED standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). Other features would include an energy recovery system that will capture the heat and water vapor as it exits the building, a carbon dioxide monitoring ventilation control system, occupancy sensors for lighting, and a daylight harvesting and control system that will sense increases in daylight and adjust the lights accordingly.
    Cecil said the end result would be a “green building.”
    The council will have at least one more workshop, tentatively scheduled for April 23, in which to ask questions about the project.