It's Back: South Portland High School Renovation Project
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Portland Press Herald
South Portland panel trims school renovation plan
More than $14 million in extras is cut from a proposal to upgrade South Portland High.
By MELANIE CREAMER, Staff Writer February 9, 2010
SOUTH PORTLAND — A city committee presented a $41.9 million renovation plan for [SPHS] to the school board Monday, a 25 percent decrease from the $56 million plan that residents rejected in 2007.
. . .
"An upgraded facility will increase real estate values," [Ellen Benson] told the board. . .
The committee planned to give its final recommendation in a workshop on Jan. 28 with the City Council and the school board. That meeting was canceled after the release of preliminary figures indicating a $1.6 million reduction in state aid to South Portland.
. . .
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=314169&ac=PHnws
A schizophrenic article on South Portland’s efforts to renovate its high school yet again. I tried to find a thread I had on it a couple of years ago when they tried to push through the $56 million dollar plan.
Interesting that they want to get this on the June ballot. Not much time to educate the public. It would seem like suicide to place it on the ballot at all in this economic climate. SPHS’s population of 907 students could be absorbed by Portland, Scarbourgh, and Cape Elizabeth assuming they would pay a negotiated rate. Not the state tuition rate. They could still save the taxpayers of SP money by outsourcing.
FYI, the $14 million of trimming is not really $14 million. The schools got a $2.4 million bond approved after the defeat of the first one to do some "emergency" work last year.
Steven Scharf
SCSMedia@aol.com
Just curious, what's the total student enrollment at the school?
907
Steven Scharf
SCSMedia@aol.com
I just added this comment to the PPH article comments. I was surprised that there were not many comments. I wonder if placement on the webpage affects the readership of articles, etc.
The 900 students who attend SPHS could easily be absorbed into the high schools of Cape Elizabeth, Scarborough, Portland and Westbrook.
PHS alone has room for 500 students and DHS has room for 200-300 students.
It would be far cheaper to do this then spend $41 million plus interest on the existing building. Benefit to the plan is South Portland could sell some of the land to a private developer who could build housing and add to the tax base of South Portland.
Steven Scharf
SCSMedia@aol.com
I gave up trying to post comments on the PPH sites a while back. Ever since the major changes to their site a year or two ago, no matter what I do, my posts never "take." I've emailed the editors several times regarding the problem, and the web people, with zero response.
I have enabled Javascript, enabled cookies, made sure my registration is current, done everything that could have been a potential problem, but nothing worked... so I gave up trying.
Perhaps I'm not the only one who's decided it's not worth the effort.
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Isn't it amazing how the pottery kilns and the fancy atriums can suddenly be dispensed with, when before the recession and the funding cuts, they were "essential" to make the school a more "special" place?