KENNEBUNK, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Voters in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Arundel have important decisions to make Tuesday regarding their schools, including a $56.5 million school renovation bond.
Of that total, $8.6 million would go to the Mildred L. Day elementary school in Arundel, $5.1 million would go to the Kennebunkport Consolidated elementary school, and $42.8 million would go to Kennebunk High School.
Students at the school said the major renovations are needed to make the school safer and more conducive to learning, particularly for students with disabilities. There is only one handicap accessible bathroom in the school. The proposal would add more and it would also add a sprinkler system and more classrooms to avoid overcrowding. The improvements would bring the school up to Department of Education standards.
"If you want to be successful in athletics you need a field that doesn't have holes in it, you need a proper field to practice on," said Kennebunk High School senior Cara McCluskey. "If you want to be successful in a work environment you need an office that cooperates. If you want to receive an education that's conducive to learning you need a proper building, and currently we are lacking that."
Opponents said those improvements should not be attached to funding for renovations at other schools.
"I don't think the facilities plan as a whole is right," said RSU 21 school board member Jeff Cole. "I think it's flawed in that it requires taxpayers to spend money on two schools that we don't need. We have declining enrollments. We have changing demographics in our area that are seeing a profound decrease in the number of young families with children that are in our schools, but an increase in demographics in people over 60 years old, and increasing the tax burden is not going to reverse that trend."
RSU 21 voters will also vote Tuesday on the proposed $40 million school budget, and voters in Kennebunkport will be asked whether they want to withdraw from the RSU altogether.
