Kicked out: SoPo councilor claims questions got him dismissed from high school building committee

SOUTH PORTLAND — South Portland City Councilor Alan Livingston pledged to continue his seemingly Quixotic quest get a laundry room built into South Portland’s new $41.5 million high school, even after those demands got him kicked off the school’s building committee.

At the committee’s final presentation to the City Council Dec. 1, Livingston was forced to make his case from the audience, having apparently lost the place at the table he enjoyed as recently as September as chairman of the athletic facilities subcommittee.

His plea was for an industrial washer and dryer to clean athletic uniforms and towels. The units could cost as much as $14,000 he said, although he stressed the amount “1/50^th of 1 percent” of the total bond approved by voters last fall. For the past five years, since the high school’s original units from the late 1950s gave out, students have taken their uniforms home, while the athletic trainer has dealt with the towels.

“I really don’t think we are being fair to our athletic department from a hygiene standpoint,” said Livingston, renewing his campaign. “I don’t think it’s right to ask an athletic trainer to take dirty, bloody towels home to wash them themselves.”

Livingston, whose son Todd is the high school athletic director, contends that by pressing his case earlier in the year, he got booted from the building committee.

After refusing an offer to resign, issued by Ralph Baxter Jr., then chairman of the school board, an email was circulated to building committee members by Baxter saying Livingston was no longer a member.

Livingston says no reason for his departure was given in the email, but he was duly scolded in private.

“They said I ‘brought shame’ to the committee, and that it was not professional for me to keep disagreeing,” he said.

 “Honestly this is not my issue,” said Superintendent Suzanne Godin on Tuesday. “The building committee facilitator [Baxter] had a philosophical difference with Al. He was asked to resign and when he refused he was removed because he was not operating in the best interests of the building committee.”

For Livingston, it’s not the first time he’d had a run-in with Godin, recently named Maine’s Superintendent of the Year for 2012 by the Maine School Superintendents Association

A math teach and high school coach for 32 years, the last 14 at Cheverus High School in Portland, Livingston served one year on the South Portland school board, resigning the post when elected to the City Council in 2009.

But during that year, Livingston says, he was twice called to the carpet by Godin.

“After I asked questions about various things at meetings, Suzanne called me and said ‘Your job is to support what we want to do. We’re the experts here, we do our homework and whatever we say you’re supposed to support.’”

“I disagree with that,” said Godin. “I did not say that. That’s not how I operate.”

Baxter could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Still, the conversation at the Dec. 1 meeting was terse, and appeared to point to some previous conflict.

“I think we could save money doing it ourselves it house, over the long run,” said Livingston of the laundry service. Although uniforms are most often sent home with students, Livingston said bulk loads are sometimes sent to area professional cleaners. On at least one occasion, he claimed, the maroon-and-white Red Riot uniforms came back from the cleaners uniformly pink. Livingston also continued to press his hygiene concerns, until he finally got told in no uncertain terms that a washer and dryer is not on the list of potential “add-ons” for the new school selected in case funding allows them to be implemented.

“As we discussed before, a washer and dryer has not been part of the plan,” said Baxter, who retired from the school board Monday, but continues the head the building committee as a volunteer. “We have not had that as a funding priority. It’s not something we’ve chosen to do and we’re choosing still not to do it.”

Livingston pointed to the presentation made by Dan Cecil, of project architect Harriman and Associates. According to Cecil, plans call for infrastructure to be built during the renovation to accommodate things that might be added later – such as air conditioning to classrooms and hardwired Internet throughout the building, in case Wi-Fi is ever disabled. Why, asked Livingston, can’t the same be done for the athletic department? Why not run plumbing from the locker room to an adjacent storage area, in case the money ever is found for a washer and dryer?

“The plumbing is going to be right there [in the next room],” he said.

“Al, we’ve been very clear,” Godin said. “For five years we have not had washer and dryer capacity. We will not at this point continue to have washer and dryer capacity. We are not going to be adding it to this project.”

“So, we’re saying we don’t want to be any better than any other school in the area?” Livingston asked, pointing to his list of 18 area high schools, 15 of which have in-house cleaning services for athletic uniforms.

“That’s not what we are saying,” Godin said. “We are saying it’s not a priority for South Portland High School at this point.”

On Tuesday, Godin explained that the issue is not the cost of the industrial equipment, but rather the fact that the school chose five years ago to eliminate the position previously responsible for doing the laundry.

“The reality is that we don’t have the staff to handle the clothes,” she said. “I truly feel it’s not in our interests to have our coaches, who we pay a significant amount to coach, wash and dry uniforms.”

Godin said parents have been supportive of the home washing options. One, Carrie Hall-Indorff, said as much at the Dec. 1 meeting. Only certain football equipment is sent out to be professionally cleaned, said Godin, and has been since before South Portland High School stopped washing uniforms in house.

“Honestly,” said Godin, “I really can’t believe this is the story, not when we have such a phenomenal building that is going to enhance education and community involvement. Really, the washer and dryer issues is such a minor thing.”

A final cost analysis is slated to be unveiled at a building committee meeting set for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 8, at the high school library. Godin said bids for a general contractor will be solicited Dec. 22 and opened Feb. 8, with construction due to get under way this spring and last through 2015.

The overall construction plan calls for retaining the original 1952 section of the high school at the corner of Mountain View Road and Highland Avenue, and the Beal Gym. The latter may prove a bit of a challenge, an architect said last week, because the gym appears to have settled in spots. The newer portion of the building, dating to 1960, will be torn down and replaced with a new structure.

At last week’s meeting, Livingston did not limit his complaints to the non-existent washroom. He also questioned the division of rooms in the 414-seat cafeteria. Wings on either side of the main dining hall can be closed off by a false wall, allowing the school department to rent out all three rooms to community groups. However, access to the wings is through the main room, which creates a potential distraction to any group using that room, Livingston said.

Also faulted was the new 164-seat lecture hall. Each row of seats is fixed to computer tables. However, Livingston said, the functionality, and thus the ability of the school to rent the room, suffers because “when people are sitting in the rows, nobody can get in or out.”

Although Livingston appeared to get some support from the audience, who agreed the lecture hall seating might prove challenging to people bigger than the average high school student, the plan was presented as a final draft, not open to revision.