State OK

    AUGUSTA, Maine – The site for the new pre-kindergarten to grade 12 school in Ashland got the State Board of Education’s stamp of approval at its June 13 monthly meeting in Augusta.
     The board unanimously approved the soccer field as the location of the new SAD 32 school, which will replace the town’s existing elementary school, as well as the middle-high school.
Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said the new site will be expanded through the purchase of three adjacent house lots.
“All of the house lots have access to public water and sewer, and three-phase power,” he said, “and are close to the downtown.”
SAD 32 presently owns 15 acres of land.
“The additional 3.5 acres will give the architects a lot more land to plan the building,” said Johnson. “It increases the options in terms of the playgrounds, parking lots and the entry/exit areas.”
The district will purchase the Everett lot for $35,000 and the Bourque property for $14,000. The third piece of property, known as the Kelly lot, has a home on it, and the district has an option to purchase it for $225,000.
Officials say the home is in excellent condition and would be used to house the superintendent’s office.
“It’s a two-story home with about 2,400 square feet,” said Johnson, who presently has an office in the elementary school. “The home would house the superintendent’s office, as well the business office.
“As long as we continue to have our arrangement with SAD 32, the part-time people in SAD 1 like Ellen Schneider, curriculum director, or Charles Anderson, business administrator, would have a desk in the home, too,” he said. “The third property also has a large garage that will be used for storage.”
Johnson said the State Board of Education liked the idea of purchasing the home because it would reduce the overall project cost.
“We were going to build the administrative offices in the new school,” he said, “but since we’re going to buy the house instead, we will decrease the square footage of the new school, therefore it will be cheaper for the state. Plus it gives some flexibility in terms of restructuring and reorganization. If, some day, the system merged, the house could be sold if there was no need for a central office.”
The state will provide $235,500 toward the land costs while SAD 32 will contribute $38,500. The new pre-K to 12 building is estimated to cost more than $12 million.
Following state approval, the district will work to develop educational specifications for the new school.
“We have a committee that’s working on that,” Johnson said. “They’ll come up with a vision for what is needed in this new school. It’s not an automatic assumption that exactly what you have is what you’re going to have. We have to revisit what the communities want and what’s important to them for subject matter and the building itself.
“They’ll discuss it and come up with this vision, and then write a plan for what the vision will be,” he said, “and that has to be submitted and approved by the Bureau of Construction in Augusta. That step is ongoing, but we’re hoping by the end of June to get our ‘ed specs’ approved.”
The superintendent said architects will be working through July and August “putting the building together on paper,” and the community will vote this fall on the design.
Johnson said state approval was “the first big step” in moving the project forward.
“This step signifies that the project is a real project,” he said, “and that the state is committed to it.”