To keep everyone in the know about the progress being made on the construction of a new Windham Middle School, a public briefing will be held next week in Windham.
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| RSU 14 will offer a public update about progress being made on the construction of the new Windham Middle School at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27 at Windham High School. Superintendent of Schools Christopher Howell will brief the public about the site selection process and where the project currently stands during the presentation. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE |
“The evening will be focused on the middle school construction project and the work that we have completed to date,” Howell said.
In July, the firm of SW Cole Engineering conducted an intensive geotechnical survey of a proposed site for the new school at 61 Windham Center Road to determine if the location is suitable for construction of the new Windham Middle School. Last November, the RSU 14 Board of Directors entered into an option-to-purchase agreement with the property owner of 61 Windham Center Road and the owner agreed to take the property off the market for a period of up to two years.
The cost of that option was $110,000 in the first year and if the board votes to move forward with a purchase of the property, $100,000 of the payment would be applied toward the purchase price. The option to extend in the second year is $10,000 per month but none of the funds from the second year would be applied at closing.
The Windham Center Road site is one of several options available to RSU 14 for the school construction. More than 132 potential 35-plus acre sites were originally identified for review by the RSU 14 WMS Building Committee and then ranked according to transportation accessibility, utility availability, environmental impact, and a range of other factors.
“Once we have all of the geotechnical data and reports on the property at 61 Windham Center Road, the committee will make the final recommendation on a possible site for the new school,” Howell said. “The recommendation will be accompanied by a public forum and a straw poll vote on the site. I am anticipating that the straw poll will take place later this fall.”
Howell said that the referendum for the new school project won’t take place until next spring at the earliest.
The original Windham Middle School was built in 1977 and intended for a capacity of 483 students. That number has grown in the last year to 636 students, with sixth graders being housed for some classes at the adjacent Field Allen School, originally constructed in 1949.
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 eventually gaining approval in March 2021.
A majority of construction costs for school projects selected through this program are covered by the state and although school districts may exceed these limits at local expense through municipal bonds, the state bears the major financial burden of capital costs for approved school construction projects after carefully determining that current school renovation would not be viable.
Lavallee Brensinger Company of Portland is serving as architects for the new school project.
Construction of the new Windham Middle School is expected to be completed by the time school begins in the fall of 2026. <
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