Citing 'desperate need,' Maine tackles the issue of how to upgrade schools

File PHOTO / JIM NEUGER The state has formed a commission to study Maine’s school construction needs and financing.

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In response to Maine's aging education facilities, Gov. Janet Mills has formed a commission to study school construction needs and financing across the state.

The commission, created by executive order, will examine the scope of Maine’s school construction and renovation needs, look at how other states fund school construction projects and provide recommendations on changes to state law.

Steven Bailey, executive director of the Maine School Boards Association, said the new group is a welcome step toward addressing a critical issue affecting nearly all Maine school districts.

"Our schools are critical community resources, used for learning, libraries, sports, community meetings, and as central locations during emergencies,” said Bailey. “Yet many of our school buildings were built multiple decades ago and are in desperate need of upgrades. Our students and staff deserve to learn and work in healthy learning environments that support 21st-century learning needs.”

At least 500 schools were built prior to the 1990s, with 243 of those schools built prior to the 1960s, according to Eileen King, executive director of the Maine School Superintendents Association.

"This data demonstrates the urgent need to fund school construction in a manner that will provide our students with healthy and safe learning environments that will meet the learning needs of today’s students and can offer equitable access to resources while serving as central hubs for communities," she said.

During the last funding cycle for the Maine Department of Education’s Major Capital School Construction Program, nine new school construction projects were approved out of 74 applicants.

The commission will include three superintendents and a representative of the Maine School Boards Association.

The creation of the commission is set within the context of a teacher shortage and a trend of repurposing disused schools, such as the conversion of an elementary school in Paris to senior affordable housing in 2018 and schools in Biddeford and Kennebunk in 2012.

But there’s also been a slate of new school construction, including the start last year of Skowhegan’s $58 million Margaret Chase Smith Community School. In recent years, there have also been new schools in Brunswick and in the Camden-Rockport district, along with school expansions in Lewiston, Winslow and Yarmouth.