By David Harry
Staff Writer

It will still cost $47 million to renovate and expand South Portland High School, but city councilors last week voted 5-2 in favor a bond question almost $3 million lower than presented last month.
The price tag and project size are still too high and too large, said councilors Jim Hughes and Rosemarie De Angelis. They both opposed the $41.5 million bond question voters will decide Nov. 2.
The difference between the construction cost of $47 million and the bond amount going to voters will be made up in part through a combination of municipal reserve funds, state bonds and some Efficiency Maine rebates.
Reducing the principal of the 20-year bond was achieved with an alternative financing plan South Portland Director of Finance Greg L’Heureux created in weeks between the council’s first reading of the bond ordinance last month, the Sept. 8 second reading and the final council vote.
L’Heureux said the alternative financing requires a commitment from councilors to add $450,000 to a secondary reserve fund in 2014 to help reduce the 20-year bond.
Accumulating the reserve fund for an additional year and using $2.7 million to pay construction costs ultimately reduces the principal and interest payments on the bond by $1.34 million, L’Heureux said in a memo.
L’Heureux said the reserve fund balance can be increased with savings in 2014 from retirement of other municipal bond debt.
At its peak in 2015, L’Heureux estimates the bond obligations will add 80 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to property tax bills. The total cost of principal and interest payments is estimated to be more than $61 million.
L’Heureux told councilors that reducing the bond amount for voter approval does not reduce the cost or size of the high school renovation and expansion project. The size and cost of the project remain the basis of opposition from De Angelis and Hughes.
“This feels like a bait and switch,” De Angelis said of the reduced bond amount.
Both councilors agree work is needed at the high school, in part to solve accreditation questions raised in the 2008 New England Association of Schools and Colleges report. The report cites aging infrastructure, air quality issues and accessibility problems for handicapped students as threats to maintaining the school’s accreditation.
De Angelis, in supporting a $35 million renovation plan, said accreditation issues could be resolved and there was no need to expand the school to 307,000 square feet from its current 200,000 square feet.
The school plan with added space will create higher energy costs despite an efficient design, said De Angelis, who also questioned the need for a new cafeteria and library.
The plans also are based around a “fad” with the team education approach now used for freshmen and sophomores, De Angelis said.
The concept creates clusters of 75 to 80 students who take English, math, science and history classes as a group in classrooms in the same wing of the school, according to South Portland High School Principal Jeanne Crocker.
South Portland High School history teacher David Kahill says the school has used the approach for five years, although science classes meet on the lower floor of the school annex.
New floor plans would place core classrooms for the team approach on three floors of the renovated school and include common rooms where teams of students may meet as a group.
Kahill, part of a team of teachers that includes Tanya Ferrante, Drew McNeely, Ryan Green and Bryan Hoy, praised the approach because it helps them develop curriculum that can be applied throughout courses and encourages students to open up in more familiar settings.
The team approach also enhances communication with students who are having difficulties, Hoy said.
De Angelis said she has not seen the teaching approach has raised test scores and student achievement and she believes the renovation and expansion design will lead to underused space.

Staff Writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219.