ROCKLAND, Maine — Drawings for the proposed $25 million regional vocational school have been unveiled.
Voters from Waldoboro to Lincolnville are expected to be asked at the polls in November whether they support the borrowing needed to build the complex.
Lavallee Brensinger Architects developed the plans for a new building that would be located on the 7-acre parcel where the current school is located on Main Street in Rockland at the Owls Head town line.
Director Beth Fisher said the drawings are draft designs only and have not yet been approved by the board. Final designs will be submitted later, along with more specific cost estimates for the project, with a final vote expected by the board in August, she said.
The proposal calls for a two-story 90,000-square-foot building to be located in the rear of where the current building is located. She said the school will be larger than the current one because the existing classrooms and work areas do not meet minimum state standards. The current building will be demolished after the new one is completed.
The current site was selected after other options failed to meet the requirements for a new larger school.
A state law that prohibits most large public facilities, such as a school, from being located on major arteries where the speed limit is 45 mph or faster, put the brakes earlier this year on a proposal to build the new regional center on Route 1 in Warren. The vocational school district’s building committee went through a list of hundreds of potential sites. The new site had to have at least 20 acres and have enough room for a new school and potential expansions. Issues such as wetlands and access to water and sewer were considered during the winnowing process, Fisher has said.
The current 57,000-square-foot building was built in 1968 as a marine repair shop. The Region 8 Cooperative Board purchased the property in 1976, and the vocational center opened for students in 1977.
Lavallee Brensinger concluded in a report to the vocational school board in January of 2015 that the Rockland building was not worth renovating.
“Given the age and condition of the facility, as well as the obstacles that the existing facility poses on the educational delivery, there is very little justification for renovating the facility,” the report stated.
A tentative schedule calls for a referendum in November of all the communities served by Region 8. That includes every community in Knox County as well as the Lincoln County towns of Waldoboro and Monhegan and the Waldo County towns of Lincolnville and Islesboro.
The technology school provides technical and career education for students from Oceanside High School East in Rockland, Oceanside High School West in Thomaston, Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport, Medomak Valley High School in Waldoboro, Vinalhaven, North Haven, Islesboro and Lincoln Academy in Damariscotta. About 450 students are served at the facility and in cooperative programs in the sending schools. Another 600 to 800 people take adult education classes.