Scarborough voters will have the chance next month to approve or reject a bond of nearly $130 million to rebuild and renovate the town’s aging schools.
If approved, the town would used the borrowed funds to tear down and rebuild Eight Corners School, as well as construct one-story additions at Blue Point and Pleasant Hill schools to replace the portable classrooms that are currently being used.
Also covered by this bond would be $3.6 million worth of addition to the Wentworth school (grades 3-5) and $28.65 million in improvements to the middle school.
The second question on Scarborough residents’ ballots seeks approval of a $10 million bond for a second story addition at Scarborough Middle School. Approval of this bond will only be possible, however, if the majority of voters also pass Question 1.
This comes two years after voters rejected a $160 million school renovation bond at the ballot box in November of 2023. At the time, only about 36 percent of residents voted in support of the proposal, while the remaining 64 percent opposed it.
Based on a 2024 survey, members of the School Board Advisory Committee determined that the school improvement project would have a price cap of $130 million, a $30 million reduction compared to the proposal rejected by voters in 2023.
Because many in the town have expressed interest in getting additional improvements done sooner rather than later, a second question was crafted to give voters the opportunity to decide whether or not to pay for these projects separately.
According to calculations first done by the Portland Press Herald, the $129.85 million bond would cost homeowners an extra $386 per year on average over the bond’s lifetime, based on the town’s median home value of $600,000.
Approval of the additional $10 million bond would cost the same taxpayer an extra $30 annually.
That said, increases would be more substantial during the initial years of the bond, with added costs decreasing in subsequent years.
For example, a taxpayer with a home valued at $600,000 would pay an $649 in 2029, followed by several more years of hikes also around the $600 mark. By about 2050, the annual tax increase as a result of this bond would drop to around $300, falling to about $200 during near the end of the bond’s life.
An official calculator from Scarborough Public Schools is available here and may be used to obtain more specific cost estimates for a given property.
Scarborough Public Schools are expected to see an enrollment increase of around 200 students over the next five years, growth that these multi-million dollar renovations seek to address.
Many of the town’s current public school buildings have been operating over capacity for years, necessitating the use of temporary classrooms for more than 20 years in some cases.
The buildings that house the town’s three K-2 primary schools are also many decades old, resulting in outdated infrastructure that the town argues cannot adequately support the needs of modern education.
The project as currently proposed would also see the construction of dedicated spaces for state-mandated programming, such as interventions and special education, as well as increased space for art and music programs.
Security upgrades would also be made to the town’s public schools using the funds from this bond if approved.
More about the proposed project from the perspective of Scarborough Public Schools can be found here.
SMARTaxes, a Scarborough-based taxpayer advocacy organization founded in 2014, has expressed opposition to the proposal as it stands, noting that the project would be the most expensive school project funded by local taxpayers in Maine.
While the group has said that they agree “significant improvements are necessary” at Scarborough Public Schools, they feel that “the project exceeds both the demonstrated needs and the ability of residents to pay for them.”
“We salute the dedication and hard work of the Building Advisory Committee that looked at the needs of the Town’s schools,” SMARTaxes wrote in a statement obtained by the Maine Wire. “From the beginning of the process, however, there were Committee members and members of the public who argued that a project cost of more than $100 million was unlikely to be approved by voters.”
“The School Board, however, refused to prioritize any needs – insisting that everything identified had to be included in the project,” the group said.
Scarborough voters will asked to weigh in on the proposed school construction bonds on their ballots for the November 4 election.
Polls will be open from 7am to 8pm at Scarborough High School, located at 11 Municipal Drive.
Early voting is also available from now until Thursday, October 30 at the Scarborough Town Hall from 7am to 5pm.
Absentee voters may request their ballots until October 30. Ballots may be returned in the drop box outside Town Hall or inside during business hours until 8pm on election day, November 4.
Click Here for More Information on Voting in Scarborough
Cape Elizabeth voters recently a similar decision, weighing in multiple times on a major plan to renovate and reconstruct their town’s aging public school infrastructure.
Capping off a multi-year process, residents approved an $86.5 million bond in June after previously rejecting a more expensive proposal costing roughly $8.2 million above the final price tag.
Projections issued at the time indicated that the final version of the bond would cost Cape Elizabeth taxpayers, with a home valued at $750,000, between $72 and $154 each year, with no changes scheduled for 2026 or 2033.
The June election in which this bond was approved saw a whopping 57 percent turnout, which is high for a local election and roughly equivalent to the nationwide voter turnout rate in the 2012 presidential election.
Also on the ballot at the time were Cape Elizabeth’s proposed school budget and a zoning amendment allowing for multifamily housing developments in the town center, both of which were also approved by a sizeable margin.
