About the Cape Elizabeth School Building Project

Where are we now in the process?

After the Middle Ground proposal failed in November 2024 by a vote of 48.8% to 51.2%, the School Board revisited the proposal with Harriman architects to find areas to reduce the scope of the construction, shave some square footage from different areas of the building, and spread out projects over the next decade through the district’s Capital Improvement Plan. A detailed list of the changes can be found here.

The new, revised project is $86.5 million, a reduction of $8.2 million from the bond that appeared on the November 2024 ballot.


Please note: The below information reflects the November 2024 school referendum.

We believe this history is important to understanding the current $86.5 million proposal in front of Cape voters. Election Day is June 10, 2025, find more information on voting here.

How did the “Middle Ground” project come about?

The Middle Ground project received its name when the SBAC Advisory Committee could not reach a consensus and gave a divided 5-4 recommendation to the School Board. During the final vote, members shared the goal of minimizing taxpayer impact, struggled to agree on the best long-term financial value, and failed to dedicate a sufficient amount of time to discuss educational needs and student disruption.

The School Board invited SBAC members on both sides to present their concerns and recommendations.

After the presentations, the School Board asked a round of 20+ questions of the architects for clarity and understanding. They also reviewed the detailed reports created by SBAC and the two community feedback survey results.

After their review, the School Board ultimately rejected both Option B (lack of emphasis on educational improvements and significant disruption to students and faculty) and Option E (concerned about the $115 million price). Instead, the School Board instructed the Superintendent to work with the Architects and the Facilities Manager to create a concept that prioritizes the following, learned through SBAC’s research:

  • “We’ve heard from SBAC that in and around 10% feels palatable,” said Elizabeth Scrifes, School Board Chair.

  • Addresses small classrooms, increase teaching flexibility, improve wayfinding to reduce bullying and increase safety, and avoid prolonged disruption to students and staff.

  • Avoid the no-win scenario of major repairs and replacement of all three school buildings at the same time 10-15 years from now.

  • Replace critical mechanical systems and address deferred maintenance arising from aging infrastructure and chronic CIP underfunding.

The Middle Ground is Common Ground

With this direction, Harriman synthesized all concerns, worked with the Facilitates Manager and the Owners Representative to “value engineer” the project — focusing on the above objectives.

This compromise solution is the culmination of over 106 public meetings from the School Building Advisory Committee, the collaboration between the SBAC, School Board, Town Council, Owners Reps, and Harriman architects.

It creates a 10-year plan to meet 100% of critical facility and educational needs without student disruption and without requiring additional construction bonds and through the utilization of CIP and SRRF Funding (This state program issues 0% interest rates to public schools for certain high-priority projects and also forgives 30% of the project as a grant.)

Harriman’s “Middle Ground” Presentation

June 24, 2024 Public Forum

SBAC Members Who Supported the “Middle Ground”

Cynthia R. Voltz
School Board, SBAC Co-Chair

Penelope A. Jordan
Town Council, SBAC Co-Chair

Caitlin S. Sweet
School Board

Corinne Bell
Citizen, K-12 Architect

Patrick Cotter
Citizen, Former Fire Marshall

Elected Officials Who Supported the “Middle Ground”

Elizabeth Scrifes
School Board, Chair

Philip Saucier
School Board, Vice Chair

Heather Altenburg
School Board

Kathleen Curry-Sparks
School Board

Jennifer L. McVeigh
School Board

Caitlin S. Sweet
School Board

Cynthia R. Voltz
School Board, SBAC Co-Chair

Jeremy A. Gabrielson
Town Council

Caitlin Jordan Harriman
Town Council

Penelope A. Jordan
Town Council, SBAC Co-Chair

Professional Experts Behind the “Middle Ground”

Harriman
Architect

Turner & Townsend
Owner’s Representative

Why Cape Voters Should ✅ VOTE YES for Our Schools

  • Fiscal Responsibility

    Creating a long-term plan for our school campus is the most responsible solution. CEMS is at the end of its useful life and parts of Pond Cove are approaching it. Trying to limp through another decade or two with these insufficient buildings will come at a great cost to the community in the form of rising fuel costs, maintenance costs, and emergency expenditures.

    Learn More

  • Adequate Classroom Space

    In the current school buildings, 78% of classrooms do not meet the minimum recommended size set forth by the Maine Department of Education. More importantly, teacher after teacher has shared that the rooms are too small for modern teaching practices and are setup for the more traditional, passive lecture-style instruction instead of the collaborative, multi-use spaces of 21st-century learning.

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  • Health and Safety

    The current school buildings were designed piecemeal, and in a different era, to meet only the most immediate current needs of their day but not with a consideration of challenges of keeping students safe that is incumbent on school districts now.

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  • Space for Modern Programming

    New schools give students with special learning needs the space and environment they need to thrive. Currently, educators providing extra programming or instruction outside the classroom may meet with their students in a cramped closet space or in crowded rooms alongside other students meeting with other educators.

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  • Physical Flow Matters

    Cohesively and thoughtfully designed schools can give back our teachers and students up to 2.5 days of instructional time every school year. Currently, an average Pond Cove or Middle School student travels long distances from classrooms, to art/music spaces, to the gym, and to the Cafetorium.

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  • Community and Collaboration

    Our humanity requires us to connect with others and to contribute to, and participate in, our communities. Modern schools give students more spaces for collaboration, both indoors and outside. The school campus is the ideal community gathering spot and location for events and fundraisers.

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  • Educational Excellence

    Cape Elizabeth is a community known for its commitment to education. The Town prides itself on the excellence in learning that occurs each day in our schools with many programs to help support our students. However, a school is not just great teachers and good programming.

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  • Attract and Retain the Best Teachers

    Cape Elizabeth is an employer. Our tax dollars hire and employ teachers and staff and we owe it to these unbelievable educators to give them, at a bare minimum, a safe and healthy workplace. But our educators also deserve a calm supportive environment design to help them and their students excel.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Cape Elizabeth School Bond Referendum

  • Our school infrastructure is approaching a breaking point. Cape Elizabeth Middle school is the oldest of our schools. Portions of the building date back to 1934 and the time has come to retire the building. Numerous architects have studied our school campus and concluded that new construction provides a better return on investment for taxpayers.

  • Unfortunately, the issues with ape Elizabeth’s school buildings are easy to find, per our architects. A few of the most significant areas where we’re falling short include:

    • Security and Accessibility Gaps: Older schools lack modern security measures and proper entrances, making it difficult to monitor access. The "middle ground" project enhances safety by adding secure entrances and administrative offices at Pond Cove and separating public and student spaces at CEMS.

    • Inadequate Learning and Support Spaces: Outdated classrooms, limited specialized learning areas, and poor technology infrastructure hinder modern teaching methods. The proposal addresses these issues with new spaces for Special Education, therapy, STEM, and hands-on learning.

    • Scheduling and Facility Constraints: Shared spaces like the cafetorium disrupt academic schedules for 1,000+ students. The project separates Pond Cove and CEMS while improving functionality across both schools.

    • Aging Infrastructure: Rising maintenance costs stem from outdated mechanical systems, inefficient designs, and structural issues like leaking roofs. The project includes upgrades to mechanical systems, flooring, ceilings, and paint, reducing long-term costs.

  • Multiple architects, engineers, and the town’s Owner’s Representative have identified numerous critical building needs and barriers to education. The cost of addressing these issues through renovation is almost as high as building a new school and lasts significantly less time before requiring additional investments. Read more here about building new over renovating.

  • This timeline gives you a detailed account of the project to date.The current project is a revised version of the "Middle Ground" project narrowly defeated in November 2024.

  • If the bond is approved at the ballot box in June 2025, payments will begin in November 2026 (FY27). Payments will be increased incrementally over 6 years. Read more here about the tax impact.

  • Absolutely not. Teachers’ salaries and budgetary issues have nothing to do with bonding a school building project. In fact, new buildings would have a positive impact on our school budget due to reduced operating and maintenance costs for the old buildings. Additionally, modern facilities would attract more high-quality teachers and administrators, particularly in a time of teacher shortage and upcoming retirements.

  • According to Architect Lisa Sawin, modern schools “build for flexibility without building to excess”. Wings are built around a combination of core classrooms and “flex spaces”. Cross-grade programs like World Language and Special Education utilize the flex spaces and move around the building depending on incoming class sizes. This allows the building to have the number of classrooms it needs while also not over building grade level wings.

    Read more on enrollment here, and remember, this project is meant to serve 68,000+ future students over the next 70 years.

  • The good news is that there are existing relief programs for those in need. We’ve compiled a list of property tax relief programs here, please share it with those who may be interested.

    Additionally, on September 9, 2024, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council voted unanimously to update the Senior Tax Relief program, introducing a system of tiered benefits updating the previous maximum of $500 to a range based on income, starting at $750 and capping at $1,500.

  • The Maine Major Capital School Construction Program accepts applications in phases. It is a very competitive process that requires a significant investment into a Facilities Assessment in order to even apply. Leveraging the reports produced by Colby, Harriman, and Turner & Townsend Heery, CESD submitted applications for all three schools for the most recent funding round on August 30, 2024.

    It is our understanding that CESD did not apply in previous application years (2011, 2017). Doing some digging, we discovered that CESD attempted to budget a full Facilities Study in 2017, however state funding cuts and "a wish for greater community participation" (as well as lack of support at the Town Council level) nixed the funding needed to study the facilities properly.

    It's important to note that the state process is a lengthy one that only opens for funding roughly once every 7 years. The South Portland middle school that opened last year was approved in the 2011 funding cycle. In 2017, where 75 applicants were accepted and only 9 were approved for state funding, some of which are still waiting to begin the concepting phase today.

    In February, SBAC met with the Maine Department of Education who said the State’s selections are based on need no matter if a project is in process or not. The Department of Education has recently opened their latest cycle with an application deadline of August 30, 2024. CESD submitted an application for each of our three schools.

    CESD has applied for and received grants to address some high-priority issues through the Maine School Revolving Renovation Fund (SRRF) which provides 10-year, 0% interest loans to schools. A portion of the loan is considered a grant and is forgiven. CESD will continue to pursue these partially-forgiven loans through their typical CIP budget process.

  • One of the top concerns from the "No" side after the 2022 referendum was the need to hire an Owner's Representative. They wanted to ensure that the next proposal wouldn't include unnecessary extras in the bond amount (aka "the Taj Mahal").

    As a result, the town hired Turner and Townsend to perform the role of Owner's Representative to oversee the school building project on behalf of the town, school department, and taxpayer. This firm works to manage the project's resources, time, money, and quality independently of the hired architect.

    Part of that work included independently verifying the project estimates from Harriman architects.

    Further, in June, Turner Townsend presented a long-term plan for Cape Elizabeth schools. After studying past work by Colby and current work by Harriman for 8 months, they created a list of repairs and renovations to include in the Middle Ground project.

    They also identified:

    • The projects that are best to seek SRRF Funds (state grant, 0% interest loans program) for

    • Completed projects that were tackled between the start of the building project years ago and today

    • Projects that are no longer required or at issue after further inspection

    • The remaining list of tasks to be addressed over the next few years through the regular CIP process.

    We're grateful to see how this decision has already helped reduce costs for the "middle ground" project. They have also been able to provide a detailed, prioritized plan for our Facilities Department to implement through this work.

“We’ve lived here for 38 + years. Our children were educated here, we now have 4 grandchildren in the schools.

There is nothing—except for several lighthouses and some beaches—that would encourage people to move here EXCEPT FOR THE SCHOOLS. We were #1 when we moved here, and now we’re hearing that we’ve dropped to #4… it’s imperative to get our schools to move forward into the next generation. Let’s get this overdue project started!”

— Andrea A.

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