Tennis courts survive cuts to high school building project

SOUTH PORTLAND — After a marathon, six-hour meeting last week, the 20-member South Portland High School Building Committee finally found the $4 million it needed to make budget on a $47.26 million renovation project nearly a decade in the making, clearing the way for construction to begin this month.

The final project specs were approved by the school board Monday night, and now the plan goes before the City Council, which has the final say in the matter. The council was expected to take up the plan, including the approval of a contract with low-bidder PC Construction, at a special meeting in council chambers Wednesday night, after The Current’s deadline. (For details on that meeting, go to keepmecurrent.com.)

Oddly enough, the final sticking point at the March 29 meeting had nothing to do with the building itself. Instead, there was a great gnashing of teeth of what could be cut from the building in order to preserve an adjoining series of seven tennis courts.

"I don't really care about the tennis courts," admitted committee member Jessica Kaplan, who teaches English at the school. "But it's important for me to retain our honor."

Issues began Feb. 23 when bids were opened on the project, for which voters approved a $41.5 million bond this past November. Of that amount, $39.26 million was reserved for actual construction. However, the low bid, submitted by PC Construction of South Burlington, Vt., came in at $43.24 million.

Working with PC executives, project architect Harriman Associates came up with a list of 143 individual items to delete, defer, reschedule or redesign, bringing the project down to $39,515,000 – within spitting distance of the $39,257,404 available, but still leaving many hard decisions to be made.

As the hours wore on, the committee threw in another 25 cuts, including custom bookcases, window sunshades, data cabling and even student lockers, finally reaching he target number after a series of thumbs-up votes. However, by then one of the many PC/Harriman cuts came under scrutiny.

It had been suggested to rebuild only four of the seven existing tennis courts, but Athletic Director Todd Livingston pointed out that the school needs at least five courts to host varsity competitions. Livingston said he'd prefer to keep all seven.

"To lose things that we already have is very difficult for me," he said.

Principal James Holland and Councilor Gerard Jalbert agreed, both calling the courts "a real community asset."

"If you drive by on a Saturday, you'll see those courts in use all day long, starting from 6 a.m.," said Holland.

Echoing Kaplan's comments about honor, school board member Jeffrey Selser said "certain promises" had been made leading up to the November bond vote, and at public hearings afterward.

"We understood certain things and I think the public understood certain things," he said. "I would be very surprised - in fact, I would give you my house - if you can find one community member who thought we would lose a community asset like that."

Still, as the committee continued to whittle away at the project to find the $110,000 needed for the last three courts – throwing out LED lighting for cheaper metal halide models, eliminating still more sunscreens and kitchen equipment, cutting partitioning walls and swapping porcelain times for cheaper vinyl – not everyone was happy.

"I feel like we are gutting the interior of the building to build a few tennis courts," said committee member and parent Carrie Hall-Indorf.

In the end, the committee agreed, if somewhat grudgingly on some items, to the cuts, leaving High School Assistant Principal Laurie Wood to sum up the committee mood.

"We didn't get the 'bridal registry,'" she joked.