BELFAST, Maine — Regional School Unit 71 directors are leaning toward doing a $10 million facelift on Belfast Area High School, but some troubled taxpayers feel the plan they call too expensive and too ambitious is being rushed through too quickly.
The midcentury modern brick-and-concrete high school was built in 1965. It has significant structural and maintenance issues with its swimming pool, entrance, math wing, locker rooms and other areas, according to board directors who feel this is the right time to get the work done. On Monday, they’ll be discussing and possibly voting for one of three plans submitted to the board by Bangor-based WBRC architects. The most expensive option is $10.4 million, and the least expensive is $5.3 million.
“I think we should seize this opportunity now and really make a change,” RSU 71 Director Caitlin Hills of Belfast said Friday. “We have the opportunity to really change the envelope of the structure, to have it be more inviting and more inspiring — safer, lighter and just a better educational environment.”
She was among a majority of board members who voted in a straw poll earlier this week for the $10.4 million renovation option for the high school, which serves about 525 students from the communities of Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Searsmont and Swanville. Full details for all three plans are available on the district’s website.
According to Hills, of the biggest differences between the plans — and the biggest sticking point between directors — is whether to save the swimming pool, which needs $375,000 worth of repairs just to get back to good working order.
“The pool seems to be one of the biggest controversies,” Hills said.
But that’s not necessarily true for others in the district, many of whom acknowledge the aging high school is not in great shape but believe it is not in the best interest of the taxpayers or the district’s students to borrow so much money to get this one job done.
“I don’t have a major problem with what they want to do,” Joyce Scott, the accounts manager for Morrill, said. “I just think we need to wait until June so we can see what the budget will look like and do the most devastating things across the district that we can afford.”
Among those, she said, is a 50-year-old boiler at the Gladys Weymouth Elementary School in Morrill that is so old it is no longer possible to buy parts for it. Scott said she is worried that if the board pushes to get the high school renovation bond before voters on the ballot in November, it will be less likely that voters will approve another big school improvement bond next year.
“There’s lots of urgent things to fix,” Scott said.
David Crabiel, the chair of the school board, said that figuring out how to balance the high school work with the needs of the elementary schools in Morrill and Searsmont is his biggest concern.
“That’s why, when we did our straw poll, I went with the least expensive option,” he said. “
Christopher Hyk of Belfast, a former RSU 71 director, believes the pricey renovation will not be universally popular among property taxpayers whose share of local education costs has been creeping ever upwards in recent years.
“I don’t think there’s a person in Belfast or any of the surrounding towns that would hesitate to increase taxes if they thought the money was going to be spent wisely,” Hyk said. “But it just isn’t. To come to the table and ask for $10 million to do a cosmetic fix, that really isn’t solving the problem.”
Still, there is broad interest among school board members and others in the community for doing some long-deferred maintenance and improvements at the new school district’s lone, aging high school.
“All you’ve got to do is look at Belfast Area High School and know that something has got to be done,” Belfast City Councilor Mike Hurley said. “And something is not going to be free.”
The RSU 71 board meeting to talk about the renovation plans will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 29 at the Belfast Area High School library.