By Gillian Graham
Staff Writer

Principal Britton Wolfe sweeps his arms toward crumbling concrete steps that lead to Biddeford’s 48-year-old high school.
“This is the public face of Biddeford High School,” he said. “This is dangerous. The edges crumble underneath [students’] feet.”
In quick succession, he lists what else is wrong with the school: windows leak, the doors are not secure, sections of the building are not handicap accessible, the air quality is questionable.
Wolfe and other school officials say these issues are among the long list of problems that will be addressed if voters approve a $34 million renovation referendum in November.
School officials have scheduled four public tours of the school. Residents are invited to meet on the front steps to speak with students and administrators at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7, Oct. 14 and Oct. 21 and 10 a.m. Oct. 24.
Superintendent Sarah-Jane Poli said the tours were scheduled to provide residents an opportunity to ask questions and see for themselves the problems identified by school officials.
“I think it’s important for the public to get in and see the building,” she said.
Tours of the building will begin at the main entrance, which Wolfe said has a number of issues.
Senior Danny Huy, student council and student body president, said the steps are a major issue for his classmates. In the winter, water pools in certain areas, creating an icy path for students rushing to class, he said.
The issue with the front entrance is not isolated to the condition of the steps, Wolfe said. The building was constructed in 1961, decades before concerns about school security emerged. The building’s front entrance is not visible from the office and visitors can easily walk into the school without being seen, he said. Wolfe said it is not uncommon for administrators to find teenagers who are not students inside the building while classes are in session.
Renovation plans call for a complete overhaul of the front entrance, which will be shifted to the corner of the building where a gazebo currently stands. The entrance will be secured with a “buzz in” system similar to the one at Biddeford Middle School, where office staff let in visitors. The entrance would also be handicap accessible, Wolfe said.
The renovation plan also calls for the addition of elevators to make all areas of the school handicap accessible. Wolfe said there are areas that three students who use wheelchairs cannot easily access. During emergencies, elevators cannot be used and students could be stuck in the building, he said.
Walking through the hallways, Wolfe and Huy point out problems that concern them the most. Wolfe said the window wall, which is on the front side of the building, causes major problems for teachers whose classrooms leak when it rains. With limited storage space, they have no choice but to put book shelves and other storage units near the windows, only to later have materials damaged or destroyed by water, he said.
Social studies teacher Michael Redmond said he comes into the school on rainy weekends to check on his classroom and move books and student projects away from the windows.
“You hate to see their projects get damaged,” he said. “We appreciate what we have and do the best we can, but it’s certainly not optimal.”
Wolfe said the single-pane windows are original to the building and provide minimal insulation. Last year, the school used 65,000 gallons of heating oil, which he said he expects to decrease drastically when new windows are installed during the renovation.
“We’ve wasted a lot of energy just on losing heat through the windows,” he said.
Mayor Joanne Twomey agrees. She said replacing the windows will pay for itself in energy savings.
“Those windows are so outdated we are heating all of Maplewood Avenue,” she said.
Walking through the hallway that connects the original section of the building to its 1971 addition, Huy points to the lockers, which he said most students don’t use. The lockers are too small to hold anything but jackets, he said. Huy said the lockers could result in health problems because students carry around heavy backpacks, straining their backs.
The renovation plans call for a new media center that would be open to the public. The current media center is crowded and not designed to accommodate students working in small groups on projects or public meetings, Wolfe said. The center currently houses both books and computers, but without any kind of separation to limit noise, he said.
For Huy, the noticeably musty smell of the library is “overbearing.” He said some of his classmates complain they get headaches, while Wolfe said he mainly hears complaints about the smell.
“It’s very musty,” Huy said. “It’s like being in here in August.”
Wolfe said the smell is one of the problems from the lack of any ventilation system in the older section of the building. The building also does not have a sprinkler system. Both are code violations that would be remedied during the renovation, he said.
The “very outdated” electrical system was not designed for the “vastly different electrical needs” of the 21st century, Wolfe said. The school has brownouts and tripped circuits routinely, especially during the summer when window air conditioning units are used to cool the office. The renovation will upgrade the electrical system and install central air in the media center, office, cafeteria and the learning lab used for summer school.
Wolfe said teachers will be able to bring classes to the cafeteria on days when classroom temperatures are uncomfortable, which is most likely to happen in September and June on the third floor.
“If it’s 90 degrees kids don’t learn,” he said.
Wolfe said classrooms on the ground level are often so cold in the winter students wear coats while they are in class. One science teacher spent much of the winter teaching with mittens on, he said. Tours of the high school will include stops at the “Weeping Wall,” where water flows into a science classroom at various times of the year, causing large puddles to spread across the floor.
Huy said many students are embarrassed when students from other schools visit, especially when they see the condition of the boys’ locker rooms, where showers are rusty. Some students have given up hope of ever seeing a new building, while others try to keep their spirits up, he said.
“It makes learning harder here,” he said. “Basically, this whole entire building is a previous generation. We should have 21st century technology in a 21st century building.”
Huy said some people – especially those visiting from outside the district – assume the school is not accredited based on its condition. School officials say the high school could be in jeopardy of losing accreditation if the building is not improved, which could affect students’ acceptance into colleges. Poli said colleges review the applications of students from accredited schools first.
The school is currently accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Loss of accreditation is a public record that states both the community and school do not meet minimum standards. According to a 2006 NEASC accreditation report, the need for solutions to facilitate issues are “crucial to the support of quality teaching and learning at Biddeford High School.”
“If the community of Biddeford does not provide a comprehensive renovation/construction solution to support teaching and learning well into the 21st century for the students of Biddeford, it will become virtually impossible to maintain high school accreditation, to meet Maine education standards, and to place its graduates on a level educational playing field with high school graduates elsewhere,” the report stated.
Poli said she in unsure how real the threat of losing accreditation is because it depends on how strongly the committee chooses to enforce facility standards. She said Biddeford is not the only city with a school in this situation and the district would likely have to develop a plan for the school if voters reject the renovation. There are several schools in Maine that are currently on probation because of issues related to school facility requirements and standards, she said.

Financial impact

Poli said the high school currently is the only building in the district in need of major work. The district has spent “a lot of money” though its regular maintenance budget to update schools, she said. Biddeford Intermediate School received updates to make it appropriate for fourth and fifth graders after the new middle school opened in 2006. The changes included new floors and paint, she said.
Poli said similar updates were done at the JFK Kindergarten Center to prepare it for young students. At the high school, more than $100,000 was spent on a new boiler about five years ago and new bleachers and floors were installed in one of the gyms, but other repairs have been on hold pending a major renovation, she said.
Poli and Wolfe said it doesn’t make sense to make repairs that would have to be undone during a major renovation. Once a renovation is started, all code violations in that area must be remedied, which can be expensive, they said.
“It’s provided the city with long service, but all buildings need renovations,” said Wolfe, who uses maintenance funds to fix the school’s most immediate needs.
According to city Finance Director Curt Koehler, borrowing $34 million over 25 years will have an average yearly tax impact of 93 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value during the period of repayment. For a home valued at $200,000, the tax bill would go up $186 per year or $15.50 per month, he said. At 51 cents per day, school officials say it is less expensive than a daily cup of coffee. Koehler said the changes likely wouldn’t take affect for up to two years.
Twomey, who lives on a fixed income, said she is aware finances are tough for many people but feels paying for the renovations now will cost less in the long run.
“I will have to make a sacrifice,” she said. “It’s 51 cents per day. It’s one less dinner, one less movie. We’re all going to have to deal with it.”

Council members split

Councilor David Flood said he fully supports the referendum, but is concerned voters will be wary of its large price tag. He said he wanted to do decrease the project by $6 million, which would allow for all major repairs to be completed immediately and small projects at some point in the future.
“I think there are a lot of problems at the high school and we need to address them,” he said. “I think it’s going to be hard to get it passed. Thirty-four million dollars is just a lot of money and times are tight.”
At past council meetings, Councilors Raymond Gagnon, Susan Deschambault and Clement Fleurent have expressed reservations about the cost of the project.
Fleurent said the $34 million price tag is high and thinks it would be more prudent to borrow smaller amounts to do work in phases. He said he doesn’t want to be seen as overly negative or anti-education, but he feels the referendum does not have support of city residents.
“I don’t think it’s going to pass. I have yet to talk to one person who’s in favor of it,” he said.
Fleurent said he would prefer to build a new high school on the site of the municipal airport when state money is available in the future.
“I know I’m just dreaming when I say that,” he said.
Twomey said she understands why some people may hesitate at the price of the project, but said now is the time to fix the high school.
“It is something that those students deserve,” she said. “It’s time to invest in the future and it’s long overdue.”
Because of the state of the economy, construction and supply costs are lower than they have been in recent years, Twomey said.
Twomey said she hopes residents will tour the high school before they make up their mind about the referendum.
“I think it’s very important to go and take a look for themselves. Look at those stairs, look at those windows,” she said. “It’s prudent for them to just go, take a look, listen to the students. I think at the end of the day, they know this is a worthwhile investment.”

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.