Raymond site donation one of many areas under scrutiny for new middle school construction

A civil engineering firm and the project architect will use a 
specific matrix to identify sites to build a new middle school 
to the RSU 14 Board of Directors. On Tuesday evening the
Raymond Select Board donated a 45-acre site on Patricia
Avenue for school construction, but it is one of many
different sites the district will look at before making a decision
next year. The new middle school is expected to open by
the start of the 2026 school year.  PHOTO BY ED PIERCE

By Ed Pierce

The Town of Raymond has officially offered to donate up to 45 acres of land for the site of the new middle school to be built by RSU 14, but multiple other locations are also under consideration as well.

On Tuesday evening, the five-person Raymond Board of Selectmen formally extended an offer to donate a 45-acre parcel at 77 Patricia Ave. in Raymond to RSU 14, contingent upon the school district’s approval of the location for the middle school construction.

“The civil engineering firm that has been assigned to our project is working through the process of reviewing all possible 35-plus acre sites,” said Christopher Howell, RSU 14 Superintendent of Schools. “Each site will be graded on a variety to attributes to determine whether or not it is a good fit for the project. The site at 77 Patricia Ave. will be considered and scored during the site selection process.”

Howell said that civil engineers from Stantec will examine each potential school site for feasibility using a site selection matrix that includes specific categories.

Some of those categories include probable developable acres; traffic; distance to public safety; student transportation; population density around the school site; environmental concerns such as wetlands and vernal pools; distance to infrastructure such as three-phase power, public water, sewers, and natural gas or other utilities; and topography of the site for development costs.

“The district is looking to narrow down potential sites by the end of this year,” Howell said. “The target would give the district ample opportunity to conduct environmental studies on a location. The final straw poll vote on a potential site is tentatively scheduled for October 2022.”

Lavallee Brensinger Company of Portland is serving as architects for the project.  

According to Howell, both the architect and Stantec will help the district with the decision matrix, which will be presented for the straw poll.

“The top couple of sites from that process will be sent to a community straw poll,” he said. “A final site will be recommended by the RSU 14 Board of Directors next year,” he said.  

The RSU 14 board will use the straw poll and input from the project architect and civil engineer to recommend a site for purchase to the State Board of Education. 

The state will reimburse the school district for the site purchase and the reimbursement will be based on the average of two appraisals on the property.  

Earlier this year, RSU 14 was informed that the Maine Board of Education had approved construction of a new middle school for Windham and a process was initiated for seeking a site to locate the new school.  

The original Windham Middle School was completed in 1977 and was built for a capacity of 483 students. In the past year, that number has grown to 636 students, with sixth graders being housed for some classes at the adjacent Field Allen School, originally constructed in 1949.

In September, Raymond selectmen were told that the state has asked if Raymond would join Windham in sending students to the new school. Should the town not choose to do this, it is unlikely that the state would approve new middle school construction for Raymond in the future to replace Jordan-Small Middle School, which now has 192 students total and was originally built in 1960.

Howell has said that sending Raymond students to the new Windham Middle School was not part of an agenda to close Jordan-Small Middle School, but rather that the state is looking to combine smaller schools. He said renovations for Jordan-Small Middle School will still be included in the RSU 14 budget, but that the state will be unlikely to approve funding for any new construction for Jordan-Small Middle School going forward.

During several public hearings in Raymond conducted in September about sending students to the new middle school, the sentiment of those attending the hearings seemed to favor joining the new school.  

“In the public hearings, families shared that they liked being part of the RSU.  Additionally, many shared that they liked the small school feel of Jordan-Small,” Howell said. “Throughout that process, the RSU reiterated that there were not any plans to close the building as part of any district restructuring.  The question facing the Town of Raymond is about whether they should be part of this opportunity that has been given to the district.  I feel that I can move forward with a decision that is made in either direction.”

The new middle school is expected to be ready by the start of the 2026-2027 school year, Howell said.

RSU 14 first applied for the Maine Department of Education’s Major Capital Construction Program in 2016 for funding for construction and was ranked as the fifth-highest priority among 74 proposed school construction projects statewide each year before gaining DOE’s approval in March. <