Letter to the editor: School buildings matter
Please note: This letter reflects opinions regarding the November 2022 school referendum to construct a new, combined elementary and middle school. It does not represent the current 2024 Cape Elizabeth school proposal.
BY DAVID KANE
School buildings matter. Our community of learners thrives in spite of Cape’s cramped classrooms and endless hallways. Pay close attention to the school construction projects (RSU 10 & 54) the “No” vote uses to argue that Cape’s carefully considered plan is exorbitant. Both of these projects are almost entirely state-funded and serve central and western Maine communities with annual household incomes one-third that of Cape.
A better comparison is Westbrook’s Middle School (2008) with 224 sf/student, or Wentworth Elementary in Scarborough (2011) with 212 sf/student. Cape’s proposed 219 sf/student is consistent with our neighbors and will provide flexible, efficient space for both the school’s core-curricular and rich extracurricular offerings.
Cape’s kids are the unfortunate inheritors of generations of least-cost decisions made with respect to the schools, and a recent tour confirmed just how deficient we’ve allowed them to become. We’re now at a point where any solution is going to be expensive. A recent analysis by Colby Company Engineering shows that the difference in the tax burden between renovating and building new is less than six dollars per month for a home assessed at $400,000. And that
figure doesn’t include the tax hit for the $5+ million in non-bondable costs to construct a mini-city of portable classrooms where our kids would spend 2-3 years.
Our schools are important symbols of how we see ourselves as a town and where we place our priorities. If not on our kids, where? Join me in voting Yes.
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