Editor:
I am writing about the proposed South Portland High School bond. I may make some of my friends and people I know and love a little annoyed but I still love you.
No one will disagree that the High School Facilities Committee has worked very hard and for quite a long time on coming up with the current proposed plan for renovations and additions to the high school. I don’t, however, understand why the plan that has been brought forth is on the impractical side.
When you look at the plans, only about $7.5 million is for renovations. The rest of the $56 million is for additions and new athletic fields and the resulting need for new runoff accommodations. That’s $48.5 million for new building and underground utilities, etc.
Personally, that’s way too much money to ask the people of this town to fork over. Our town is already about $29 million in debt. Then to add $56 million plus interest brings us to $85 million plus interest. I want to remind you that the current population of South Portland is only about 23,000 people. That would be about $4,000 per person, plus interest. That’s every man, woman and child owing that money.
Those people who are proponents of the current school bond tell us it will only raise our property taxes by about $5,000 over the 20-year period of the bond. Or about $300 per household per year. That would be on top of our current debt and any future debt the city would take on. Does anyone really think our taxes would go down after the bond is paid off? Not likely. Especially considering that this will not be the one and only bond proposed over the next 20 years.
We do not need fake turf. It is not a one time cost either. Fake turf comes with a parcel of new maintenance problems and costs. Fake turf has to be decontaminated because it has a tendency to develop bacteria that is quite unhealthy. That costs a fair amount of money and time.  If you talk to the maintenance people and coaches of schools that have fake turf they will tell you it is a lot of extra maintenance.
Besides, we were told when we voted for the purchase and development of Wainwright Fields that that was going to be the big solution to space and quality of athletic fields for the schools. Well, with poor landscape architectural planning and layout of the fields, no one wants to use them for high school sports. There is no convenient way to get to the back of the fields and no lights back there, etc. Why else would the School Facilities Committee want new athletic fields at the high school?
Were we sold a bill of goods on that one?
When the auditorium and cafeteria were being built, I remember parents whose kids were at the high school at the time telling the school board and city council that the cafeteria would not be big enough. Well, guess what’s on the list of proposed new construction? A new cafeteria and kitchen because the current cafeteria is not big enough.
The girls’ showers in the locker room have been broken since the 1970s. Why? What is so broken about them? Why are maintenance problems like this one not being allowed to be fixed?
Not being one to simply criticize and complain, I have a suggestion.
If the School Facilities Committee and the school board put out a plan with necessary renovations and do away with the wish list, showplace school building the people of this town would probably approve it. After all, the schools do need work. Making the buildings pretty and having the newest, cool features will not improve education. What the schools need is functional space.
Next year the plans for Memorial Middle School will probably come out and that will be another big chunk of money that the school facilities committee and the school board are going to ask for. That means the $200 to $300 per year on our property taxes will go up another $200 to $300 per year.
Vote “No” on the current high school bond.
Kandi-Lee Hoy
South Portland