Which way for Wentworth?

Both sides fear complacent voters will fail to show at the polls Nov. 8, allowing the other to prevail in the fight over a $39.1 million school construction bond.

Todd Jepson, facilities director for the Scarborough School
Department, points to steel plates that hold of the concrete
floor at Wentworth Intermediate School. In many places the
plates have begun to rust and flake apart, compromising the
integrity of the building.

SCARBOROUGH — The battle lines are being drawn in Scarborough over a $39.1 million bond to build a new intermediate school. But people for and against the plan agree on one thing – both fear like-minded residents won’t bother to turn out to the polls Nov. 8, allowing an easy victory to their opponents.

“People are under the impression that the Town Council has approved it, the school board has approved it unanimously, so it’s a done deal and there will be a groundbreaking,” said Kelly Murphy, one of 41 people on the building committee that ushered through the plans.

“As far as many people are concerned, it’s already happening. So we are trying to inform people that, yes, you have to vote,” said Murphy.

At stake is the future of Wentworth Intermediate School, which supporters of the bond has fallen into such a state of disrepair as to impede the education of the school’s students. In addition, the school is too small for its enrollment, a number that is expected to increase. Residents against the plan, however, say the proposed new school is too big and too costly, especially considering the economic climate.

Murphy and her fellow committee member Kara O’Brien are now leading the PR charge in support of the “New Wentworth” project. Both say they fear a recent uptick in opposition could carry the day if supporters get complacent.

Meanwhile, former Town Council member Jeffrey Messer, who served on the committee that passed a $26.9 million bond three years ago to renovate the high school, says the price tag on Wentworth is too much.

“It’s no surprise they’ve brought it up in a year when there’s no governor or presidential race” he said, predicting easy defeat for the bond in any year with high turnout drawn by big-ticket races.

“In this case, the more motivated voters are the ones who really want it, who stand to gain something,” said Messer. “If it does pass, it’ll only be because it’s an off-year election.”

Messer says opposition to the school bond is actually even higher than Murphy and O’Brien fear. He’s one of the few speaking out – perhaps ironically, given that he sold his house Oct. 1 and has fled Maine to live out his retirement years in Florida, where he believes the cost of living will be lower.

“A lot of the people I talk to are very opposed to the project,” said Messer, “they are just not going to speak out in public. Most people will not put themselves in a line of fire from their neighbors.”

Although all town councilors voiced support when agreeing to put the bond question on the ballot, Messer claims at least two will actually vote against the bond once the curtain closed behind them in the ballot booth. He would not name the two opposing councilors.

One candidate for Town Council in the November elections has said he will vote against the project. James Benedict said the price tag is simply too high.

“That’ll be closer to $70 million, with the interest, and we’re only into our third year of paying for the high school bond,” he said. “I know plenty of born-and-bred Scarboroughites who have no complaints about that building.”

Messer did mention a handful of other opponents but, as predicted, those who could be reach declined to comment on the record.

All agreed however, that the school, as designed, is too big.

“That’s surprising to us, because we literally spent a year making it as small and inexpensive as possible,” said Murphy.

“I have a lot of respect for the work and the time they put in on the building committee,” said Messer. “But I think they got brought down the path of this grandiose design that’s more than we really need right now. What we need is something that balances student needs with the needs of taxpayers. This project does not do that.”

The design prepared by Auburn-based Harriman Associates dresses out at 163,000 square feet and 40 classrooms. It’s meant for 800 students but could house up to 960 at the maximum number of students recommended by the state for each 800-square-foot classroom. Current enrollment at Wentworth is 775. O’Brien says committee members feared a repeat of the town’s experience at the middle school, when the student body outgrew the new building “almost from day one.”

Ten-year-old Killian Murphy has to use
a step stool to get a drink of water at
Wentworth Intermediate School. Built
in 1962 as a junior high school, the
building now serves students in Grades 3-5.

Wentworth was built in 1962 as a junior high, then officially expanded in 1974, and unofficially expanded with the addition of 18 used portable buildings in the ‘90s. Portables added in the ‘80s now sit on the back of the building, empty and condemned.

Because the cinderblock walls of the original building will not support the weight of a second floor – or, even an “adequate” layer of insulation, according to district facilities director Todd Jepson – each addition was added in a snake-like tendrils from the original body. Today, said Principal Anne-Mayre Dexter, youngsters on the far end of certain wings must walk the length of two-and-a-half football fields to get to a bathroom. In another obvious hint that the building was not designed for its current occupants, every drinking fountain is accompanied by a footstool, without which the bubblers would be useless to most students.

But these design flaws are what building committee Chairman Paul Koziell calls the “top third of the iceberg.” Koziell said he voted against the last attempt to rebuild Wentworth, a $38.3 million bond question offered in 2006. He entered the current project with a skeptical mind, he said, but has since become convinced of the “absolute necessity” for a new building.

“There’s no doubt what we’re asking for is a big number,” said Koziell. “It’s the largest public project in the history of Scarborough. But that’s because what we have now is not a well-built building. If we don’t do this, we’ll end up putting millions and millions of dollars into it, just trying to keep up with repairs.”

Those maintenance costs have run to $1.6 million since 2006. As one example, earlier this year, the town spent $140,000 on new storm windows. That only replaced one of six windows in each classroom of the 1962 wing. Teachers have been instructed not to open or even touch the others, due to the presence of asbestos in the window casing.

And, in the bottom two-thirds of the iceberg, Jepson said he spends $30,000 each year to clean mold out of the building’s four-foot-high utility tunnels, due to an OSHA requirement that he hire people trained to work in confined spaces. Even worse, he said, the steel plating on the ceiling of those tunnels, which holds up the school’s concrete floor, is beginning to run through.

Messer agrees that Wentworth is in sorry shape. However, he points out that that the last time the district tried to get state funding, the school ranked 51^st of 66 projects. That’s evidence, he said, of a building not yet at crisis level, “good for another five or 10 years.” Jepson said it simply indicates how much worse off some other towns have it, which in no way diminishes the need in Scarborough.

Still, Messer said his main issue is the “grossly oversized” design of the new building. If it had come in around 110,000 square feet, instead of 163,000, he “almost definitely” would have supported the project, and urged others to do the same.

“Right now,” he said, “what was presented is at least 25 percent more than what’s needed, which, quite frankly, in this economic time, is reckless.”

A Closer Look

Designs for the new Wentworth Intermediate School can be found online at www.newwentworth.com. A public forum on the plans will be held Monday, Oct. 17, at 7 p.m., at the high school. Residents will vote on the $39.1 million proposal at the polls Tuesday, Nov. 8.