Families lined up out the door Thursday night for an open house at the Bangor High School wing that’s been transformed for the Fairmount School’s fourth and fifth graders.
The Bangor School Committee decided this spring to move Fairmount students and staff into the wing following the discovery of asbestos in the ceiling of the department’s oldest building, which is more than 100 years old.
The first day of classes on Tuesday comes as it appears likely that Fairmount students will remain in the high school for more than just one year, and as leadership nears a decision on whether to invest tens of millions for the litany of repairs needed in the older facility.
There were still finishing touches to be completed Thursday, but the new “school within a school” at Bangor High was mostly complete. It comes with its own secured entrance, bathrooms and an office suite for Fairmount’s counselor, social worker and nurse. A cafeteria and a library area have been set up in the hallway space that previously housed rows of lockers for high school students.
Turnout was high for the open house, and many families and teachers seemed excited about the new space. Teacher Jessica White reported “overwhelmingly positive reactions” about the new setup from the families who visited her classroom.
“It’s a good fresh start. It was a hard year last year,” she said.
A new door was added adjacent to the cafeteria, school department spokesperson Ray Phinney said, leading directly outside to what will be a playground. As of the open house Thursday, the play structure had not yet been installed due to contractor delays, but workers were expected to break ground on that area the following day.
Sharing a building with the high school presents new opportunities for Fairmount, such as using Bangor High’s outdoor classroom and garden and close proximity to Prentiss Woods, according to Finney.
There’s also a new set of doors at the end of the hall separating Fairmount students from the high school.
“It’s important for them to be able to feel like they have their own space,” Phinney said.
The school also has a new interim principal, Darryl Loring, who was appointed this summer after serving as assistant principal at James F. Doughty School.
Bambi Heath, who taught in the same Fairmount classroom for 18 years until now, said she appreciated the chance to have a change of scenery and design a new space. Her classroom has magnetic panels on the walls and a floor-to-ceiling calendar she found on Facebook Marketplace.
“It’s going to be a memorable year. It’s going to be one of those where you don’t know what to expect, but that makes it kind of exciting,” Heath said, adding that Fairmount’s teachers are happy to be together and all working on the same floor.
Other plans considered by the department this spring would’ve involved splitting up the Fairmount community and reorganizing several schools in the district.
“I think it looks great,” fifth grade parent Megan Anderson said of the new space.
Anderson said she’s still concerned about equity and the added distance from home compared with Fairmount’s location on the city’s west side.
“But the teachers have worked so hard to make their classrooms these incredible spaces for the kids,” she said. “I don’t know how they pulled this all together.”
New information presented at this month’s School Committee meeting indicated that should the department move forward with repairs to Fairmount, it would take more than a year and up to $60 million — nearly as much as the department’s entire budget.
That would require bonds for the school department and more expenses for taxpayers, Superintendent Marie Robinson said in an interview Thursday.
The first phase of construction, which would address the most pressing safety issues such as asbestos, mold, roof replacement, water intrusion through the building’s foundation and fire protection measures, add up to more than $17 million and between 15 months to two years to complete, according to a report by engineers at Carpenter Associates.
Those engineers also identified a second phase of repairs needed, which would cost more than $21 million. With additional construction contingency costs and other fees, the company estimated a nearly $62 million total cost, including $27 million in the first phase.
That’s much higher than the $5.6 million in repair costs identified in a preliminary review by another contractor this spring.
The school department has proposed doing districtwide facility and enrollment studies before committing capital funds to Fairmount and keeping those students at the high school through 2027-28.
School administrators have also warned that getting construction funding from the state is unlikely, and Fairmount isn’t the only aging building in the district.
Bangor schools applied last year for major construction funding from the Maine Department of Education for Fairmount, Mary Snow and Downeast schools, but of the 95 in the state that applied in that cycle, only two received funding.
School Committee Chair Timothy Surrette called the Carpenter Associates report “incredibly sobering” at the meeting, and committee members didn’t seem confident that it would be feasible to gather the funds needed to repair Fairmount.
“I’ve never had a very old dog, but I imagine this is what it feels like to get a bad report from the vet on your aged dog,” committee member Ben Sprague said, adding that the report was sad to hear but that he thought the cost required to fix up Fairmount “is just not realistic,” especially given other schools will likely need repairs soon too.
The committee will have to decide this fall whether to repair or rebuild the school, or undergo a more extensive consolidation process throughout the district.
Robinson celebrated what she saw as a “pretty seamless transition” into the high school building, emphasizing that Fairmount’s educators will take good care of their students and prioritize their safety and well-being amid the transition.
The department is holding listening sessions for community members to weigh in on long-term facilities planning at 10 a.m. Monday in the William S. Cohen School cafeteria, at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the James F. Doughty School cafeteria and at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Downeast School gym.