BREWER, Maine — A plan by the Department of Education to delay construction bonds by six months to a year probably will not affect the city’s planned new elementary-middle school, but could slow construction of the new high school in Hampden.
With groundwork already under way on a new $39.5 million pre-kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school on Parkway South, the six-month delay for Brewer is not expected to change the construction schedule, Lester Young, Brewer School Department’s business manager, said Monday.
“We think things will proceed the way we have planned,” he said.
The new two-story, 156,000-square-foot school, which when complete will be the largest elementary-middle school in the state, is expected to be finished in late 2010.
Young and Superintendent Daniel Lee met with a Board of Education subcommittee Monday and “they’re going to recommend we get final approval next week” at the larger board’s regular meeting, he said.
“We’re meeting this Thursday to talk to the Department of Education about our schedule,” Young said. “At this time, we don’t anticipate a change on our schedule. We’re too far along in our project for that to happen.”
Young and Lee are also going to meet with the bond council, Lee said.
The state issued a press release Monday afternoon saying that in order to save money in the department’s biennial budget, school construction bonds for 12 projects would be delayed.
Brewer’s bond date moved from spring 2009 to fall 2009, and the bond for the new high school for SAD 22, encompassing Hampden, Newburgh and Winterport, moved from spring 2010 to spring 2011.
Voters from the three SAD 22 towns voted in late September to move forward with the $51 million high school construction project, dubbed the most expensive in state history.
SAD 22 Superintendent Rick Lyons acknowledged the news was not encouraging, but he said local officials are working to see whether there are other financing alternatives that would ensure the project stays on schedule.
“We actually are meeting Thursday to continue looking at options,” Lyons said Monday. “The good news is our project has been approved and the money is there. How we get that money is the question.”
Lyons said he doesn’t expect any changes in the planning process, at least for the time being.
The Department of Education leaders told superintendents last week that they intended to delay the bonds, “as a way to preserve the funding for educational programming in the face of a tightening budget outlook,” the press release states. The move is expected to free up nearly $5 million for general education by transferring bond payments from the 2010-11 biennial state budget to the next budget cycle.
“At a time when we are facing the real prospect of flat-funding or even reductions to state subsidies for education, we’re working to reduce expenditures while still preserving programming for local school districts,” said Jim Rier, director of finances for the Department of Education. “Delaying the bond dates allows us to preserve the projects while freeing up money for educational programming.”
In addition to Brewer, school construction project bonds in Portland, Gorham, Durham and Brunswick were delayed from spring 2009 to fall 2009.
Lee said he would inform the Brewer School Committee about the bond delay Monday evening during its regular monthly meeting.
“It’s unfortunate, but the national and state economy is in a tough state,” he said. “The state doesn’t have much of a choice except to delay bonding.”
Brewer school leaders’ original plan was to begin construction of the new school in January. With the bond funding delay, the money will not become available until a year from now, so Lee is working to secure interim financing to start the work in the spring and avoid delays.
“I’ll know more after Thursday,” he said. “After we’ve worked out some financial plans.”
The Department of Education delayed a bond for SAD 9 in Farmington from spring 2010 to fall 2010 and bonds were delayed from spring 2010 to spring 2011 for the new schools in Hampden, Jefferson, Chelsea and Falmouth, and renovations at the elementary school in Woolwich and Mt. Blue High School.
BDN writer Eric Russell contributed to this report.