Ground will be broken in September for the new Windham Raymond Middle School which will be built at 61 Windham Center Road in Windham.
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| Ground will be broken in September for construction of the new Windham Raymond Middle School at 61 Windham Center Road. The new school is expected to open in the Fall of 2027. COURTESY PHOTO |
RSU 14 first applied for the Maine Department of Education’s Major Capital Construction Program in 2016 for funding for construction and it was ranked as the fifth-highest priority among 74 proposed school construction projects statewide each year before eventually gaining approval in March 2021. Once a school district applies for funding, Maine Department of Education reviews and rates the projects based upon need. The State Board of Education then funds as many projects from the list as available debt limit funds allow. Working with the State Board of Education, Maine DOE establishes both size and financial limits with additional expenses financed through local municipal bonds approved by voters.
More than 132 potential 35-plus acre sites were originally identified for review for the new school by the RSU 14 WMS Building Committee and were then ranked according to transportation accessibility, utility availability, environmental impact, and a range of other factors. The Windham Center Road site for the project was finalized in June 2023.
Chris Howell, RSU 14 Superintendent of Schools, said the middle school project continues to be on schedule.
“The district has signed a contract with Shaw Brothers Construction for the site work on the project. This work includes all the roads, parking lots, athletic fields, playground and off-site traffic and sidewalk improvements,” Howell said. “We are currently waiting on two permits to start construction. One permit is from the Army Corps of Engineers and the other is from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Both permits are expected on or around Aug. 1. The public can expect to see a significant amount of activity on site as soon as the permits are in hand.”
Howell said that the bidding process for the new school construction is expected to take place in December or early January.
“In anticipation of the bid process, work is taking place on the construction documents for the final design of the building,” he said. “If all goes well, we anticipate breaking ground on the building structure in late February or early March.”
The school district is also currently working on obtaining traffic permits with the Maine Department of Transportation which will define road improvements necessary for Windham Center Road and River Road and a formal groundbreaking ceremony will be conducted at the site sometime after Labor Day.
Once the school construction is completed Windham Middle School and Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond will be combined into what will be known as Windham Raymond Middle School.
The original Windham Middle School was built in 1977 and was intended for a capacity of 483 students. That number has grown in the last few years to exceed 650 students, with sixth graders being housed for some classes at the adjacent Field Allen School, originally constructed in 1949. Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond was originally constructed as an elementary school in 1960 and currently has about 180 students.
The new school plan calls for students in Grades 5 to 8 for both Windham and Raymond students. Windham fifth graders currently attending Manchester School would attend the new school, as would Jordan-Small Middle School students from Raymond. The maximum capacity for the new school is expected to be about 1,200 students and the building is expected to be viable for at least 50 years.
Lavallee Brensinger Company of Portland is serving as architects for the construction project and Howell said that the school is being designed to accommodate teams of two to four staff members.
“The teaming structure will give students the feel of being in a smaller school within the larger school. Each team will have spaces that are dedicated to each of the core subject areas,” he said. “In addition, the building will be structured to allow for the integration of some of the applied arts within the team. The development of the team structure will serve to bring the best possible facilities to each team. In contrast, the original Windham Junior High School, now Windham Middle School, was built as a departmentalized Junior High School.”
According to Howell, within the current teaming structure, only some classrooms have access to lab classrooms as part of science classes.
“At Jordan-Small Middle School in Raymond, the building was originally designed as an elementary school. When the building was repurposed as a middle school, two science labs were created to serve students in four different grades,” he said. “The new building will also incorporate the newer state guidelines for room sizes. Many of the classrooms at WMS are significantly undersized when compared to current standards.”
The new Windham Raymond Middle School features a 600-seat auditorium, additional bleacher seating and parking space, a larger gym, a walking track, and outdoor classrooms.
The estimated cost of the project is $140 million in state-subsidized construction and about $38 million in local additional costs. Windham will be responsible for roughly 80 percent of the $38 million local costs and Raymond will be responsible for roughly 20 percent.
Howell said that the new school is expected to be open by Fall 2027. <
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