Published in the Current
Thousands of people convicted of sexual crimes are required under a revised state law to register with their local police department by Sept. 1 – a mandate the Maine Civil Liberties Union believes should be challenged in court.
At issue is how far the state wants to go back in a person’s criminal record. Originally the state’s sex offender registration law required that all people convicted of gross sexual assault of minors, which includes rape, since June 30, 1992, had to register with state and local police. In 1999 the legislature expanded the law to include a number of other offenses, ranging from unlawful sexual contact to nonparental kidnapping. From that date forward, all people convicted of those offenses also had to register.
In September 2001, the state Legislature made the 1999 law retroactive to the original 1992 date. All offenders convicted of any of the crimes since 1992 are required to register by Sept. 1 of this year.
The backward-looking expansion of the law is expected to add about 3,300 people to the sex offender registry. In mid-July the list held about 750 names, some of which were duplicates. The new list is projected to include 4,000 people.
Registration happens at the police station in the town where the offender lives, and involves appearing at the police station and giving a photograph and a set of fingerprints to the police, as well as providing proof of address, according to Lt. Jackie Theriault of the State Bureau of Identification, a part of the Maine State Police.
Local police send the information to the state, where it is compiled into a statewide registry.
Local police also have to decide whether to notify neighbors of the offender.
Notification
Neighbors of registered sex offenders are not always notified. Theriault said this is up to local authorities, who can decide whether to tell neighbors, and how wide an area to alert, if notification occurs.
“We deal with them on a case-bycase basis,” said Scarborough Police Chief Robert Moulton.
“You’re walking a tightrope,” he said, between the public’s right to know and the registrant’s right to privacy. He said generally the department would notify the neighbors about someone classified as a “sexually violent predator” and would be less likely to notify people about a registrant classed as a “sex offender,” the other designation on the registry. Violent predators include those who are repeat offenders and first-time offenders who have committed especially serious sexual crimes.
“It depends on the offense,” Moulton said, and on the department’s perception of risk to the community.
Moulton said the town has four offenders registered, and police have notified neighbors two or three times in the last two or three years. They have confined that notification to the immediate neighborhood where the registrant lives.
Moulton said some registrants have “settled in” even after notification, while others have left. He said the department has not been notified of any retribution problems, with neighbors harassing or otherwise targeting registrants for abuse. Moulton also said he has not had problems with registered sex offenders committing further sex offenses while in town.
Cape Elizabeth Police Chief Neil Williams said the town has not been home to any registered sex offenders since the law took effect. “We’ve been lucky,” Williams said. He said a small number of offenders have visited people in town or worked in town, but had not caused any problems and had not stayed very long.
If a sex offender were to move to town or if an existing resident were to be required to register, Williams said, “we would probably notify the neighborhood.”
How it works
Maine’s sex offender registry was created in 1991 by the state Legislature, which required that beginning June 30, 1992, offenders convicted of gross sexual assault of minors under the age of 14 register with state and local police when they were released from prison or immediately after conviction, if the sentence did not include jail time.
Convicted offenders were required to tell police where they lived. If they did not change residence, re-registration was not required, according to Theriault. In 1995, the Legislature changed the law to include offenders convicted of gross sexual assault of a victim under age 18. That law became effective in 1996.
In 1999, the Legislature expanded the law to apply to 12 other lesser offenses: gross sexual assault as a sexually violent crime, sexual exploitation of a minor, sexual abuse of minors, unlawful sexual contact, visual sexual aggression against a child, sexual misconduct with a child under age 14, kidnapping (nonparental), criminal restraint, violation of privacy, incest, aggravated promotion of prostitution (victim under age 18) and patronizing prostitution of a minor.
The 1999 law applied only to offenders convicted after the law took effect. It also created two separate categories of registrants, “sex offender” and the repeat offender or “sexually violent predator.” The latest revision, in September 2001, rolled back the time frame on the new offenses to June of 1992.
Sex offenders are required to register annually for 10 years after release from prison or sentencing, if there is no prison time involved. Sexually violent predators are required to register every 90 days for the rest of their lives.
In each case, the registry mails a registration form, which cannot be forwarded, to the last known address of the offender. Registrants must take the form and a recent photo to the local police department, where police will verify their identities and take a set of fingerprints.
The records are then sent back to the registry office in Augusta, where the list is updated if necessary. Registrants must also pay $25 per year in administrative fees, Theriault said.
If registrants move, they have 10 days to notify the state registry office, whether the new home is in Maine or outside the state. If moving out of Maine to a state with a sex offender law of its own, a registrant must also notify the authorities in that state.
Similarly, sex offenders convicted in other states where they are required to register, must also notify Maine police if they move into the state.
Criticism of retroactive change
The Maine Civil Liberties Union is criticizing the sex offender registry for covering too broad a range of crimes and, in particular, the new requirement to register people convicted as long ago as 10 years ago.
“In our view, requiring someone to register can often amount to punishment,” said Louise Roback, the MCLU’s executive director, who recently came to Maine from a position as the executive director at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where she dealt with sex offender registry issues, among other concerns.
Roback said imposing punishments is the role of the courts and not the legislature. Further, she said, imposing additional punishments for crimes committed in the past could be a violation of constitutional rights.
Once a person serves their time in prison or on parole or probation, Roback said, “they have paid their debt to society. ”
Further, some of the people now required to register, she said, are criminals who committed an offense long ago and may not have run afoul of the law since. “It is unusual to go back so many years,” she said.
Roback said listing on a sex offender registry tars the reputation of a person who may be on the way back to productive participation in mainstream society.
It may, she said, also result in “severe incidents of vigilantism,” which she said she saw in New York.
Roback said she understands the intent of the law, and said it seems to be legitimate. “People wanted to protect their children from child molesters,” she said. But now the list of offenses requiring registration is too large, she said.
“Legislators just can’t stop” adding offenses to the list for which registration is required. The list presently includes at least three crimes not directly related to sex acts or sexual behavior: non-parental kidnapping, criminal restraint and violation of privacy.
Not enough protection
Further, legislators who say the sex offender registry protects children are ignoring a major source of sex offenses against children.
“The vast majority of sex offenses committed against children are committed in the home by people that the parents trust,” Roback said. A sex offender registry does nothing about that, she said.
If the idea was for people to take action to protect themselves and their children from sex offenders, Roback said, the defenses are misdirected.
“The real danger is something that parents are overlooking,” she said.
She is not opposed to “reasonable measures” taken by parents and legislators to protect children from sexual predators. But she said creating lists serves only to drive offenders “underground,” and prevents them from seeking services they may need to be healthy, functioning members of their communities.
“It does tend to ostracize people from society,” Roback said.
Challenging the law
Roback said the MCLU is open to considering a challenge to the law, and is hoping to hear from sex offenders affected by the law change, who feel they are being wronged by the new requirement to register. “We haven’t heard from anyone complaining about it,” she said.
Often, she said, convicted criminals are reluctant to stand up for their rights, because filing a lawsuit would require them to identify themselves as sex offenders. She did say that anonymous lawsuits could be a possibility.
She said challenging this law is important because it may violate constitutional protection against what is called “ex post facto” legislation, or laws that outlaw behaviors that have already occurred, or add punishments to sentences handed down in the past.
In the meantime, state officials are encouraging anyone who thinks they might need to register to contact state police, rather than risk violating the law.
“I want them to call us and we’ll help them,” said Lt. Theriault. If people do not register, they are in violation of state law and can be charged with a Class D misdemeanor offense.
Thursday, August 29, 2002
Nursing home makes changes after death
Published in the Current
Improvements have been made at the Viking Community Nursing Home – where an Alzheimer’s patient wandered off and died earlier this month – but the facility is still being fined for what the state calls “substandard” care.
The finding of “immediate jeopardy” has been lifted, according to Helen Mulligan, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. But not all the problems have been fixed.
“The facility isn’t in total compliance,” Mulligan said. It is considered to be providing “substandard quality of care,” because of problems with record keeping and security, she said.
As a result, Viking is being fined $350 per day from Aug. 23, and is not eligible for Medicare payments for new admissions, she said. If the nursing home does not fix the problems, Mulligan said, its Medicare payment
agreement for existing patients will be terminated Feb. 13, 2003.
The nursing home remains in violation of federal requirements to prohibit “mistreatment, neglect and abuse of residents and misappropriation of resident property,” and to complete “a comprehensive care plan within seven days” of patient needs assessment, Mulligan said.
The Viking is the subject of state and federal scrutiny following the Aug. 9 death of Shirley Sayre, 77, who wandered out of a secure unit at the Viking and drowned in a culvert across Scott Dyer Road.
An initial investigation by state regulators found the nursing home placed several residents in “immediate jeopardy.” A $3,050 fine per day was levied Aug. 12 and remained in place until Aug. 22, requiring the Viking to pay$33,550 for that infraction.
Corrections plan accepted
Viking sent a plan of corrections to the state Department of Human Services Aug. 22, according to department spokesman Newell Augur. It has been accepted, after some minor revisions, he said.
State inspectors paid a surprise visit to the Viking the following day. “It wouldn’t have made any sense for us to go in before they’d filed a plan of corrections,” Augur said. Once a plan had been filed, though, the state wanted to check on things quickly, especially given the prospect of the Viking losing federal funding without a successful inspection, he said.
Door locks and alarms that had been malfunctioning during the Aug. 12 investigation had been fixed by the end of that day, and remained functional Aug. 23, Augur said. Individual care plans had been updated by Aug. 23, Augur said, but that’s not quite enough.
“They have completed the care plans for all the patients in the facility,” he said. “They haven’t proven to us that they can set up a system” to prevent future care plans from being incomplete.
Augur said the plan of corrections provides a strategy for doing just that, but it has not been tested yet.
Duane Rancourt, administrator at the Viking, said all the necessary corrections have been made and he is waiting for word from regulators that will allow the nursing home to admit new patients.
The biggest adjustment for staff and visitors is the keypad to get in and out of the building, he said. The code to the keypad is posted at the door, but he said that doesn’t give dementia patients an opportunity to get out because “they have a hard time with sequential things.”
Rancourt and the Viking staff also are taking advantage of a temporary slowdown in business to relocate the Medicare unit to the long-term care unit, a change that he had planned for some time, he said.
And despite regulatory criticism and scrutiny, the Viking is getting support from many family members of current and former patients.
Community support
One family member of a recent Viking Community patient, who asked not to be identified, told the Current that he was satisfied with what he called “excellent care” from Viking staff. He also said, “Alzheimer’s can strike anybody, and it always ends in death.” He went on to express support for the staff of the Viking, whom he said were “doing the best they can” dealing with patients with challenging conditions.
Selvin Hirshon, whose wife was an Alzheimer’s patient at the Viking for close to seven years before her death in February, said he strongly supports the Viking.
“I think it’s one of the best nursing homes” in the area, he said. Before moving his wife into the Viking, he said, he looked at “at least half a dozen nursing homes around here” and chose the Viking. “I think very highly of it," he said.
Hirshon said he has spoken with other family members of Viking residents who feel similarly. He said he knows a number of the staff, too, after spending “300 days a year for nearly seven years” visiting his wife. He said the staff and administration, including administrator Rancourt, “go out of their way” to be friendly to residents and to make it a nice place to live and work.
“I would give it a very high rating,” Hirshon said.
Improvements have been made at the Viking Community Nursing Home – where an Alzheimer’s patient wandered off and died earlier this month – but the facility is still being fined for what the state calls “substandard” care.
The finding of “immediate jeopardy” has been lifted, according to Helen Mulligan, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. But not all the problems have been fixed.
“The facility isn’t in total compliance,” Mulligan said. It is considered to be providing “substandard quality of care,” because of problems with record keeping and security, she said.
As a result, Viking is being fined $350 per day from Aug. 23, and is not eligible for Medicare payments for new admissions, she said. If the nursing home does not fix the problems, Mulligan said, its Medicare payment
agreement for existing patients will be terminated Feb. 13, 2003.
The nursing home remains in violation of federal requirements to prohibit “mistreatment, neglect and abuse of residents and misappropriation of resident property,” and to complete “a comprehensive care plan within seven days” of patient needs assessment, Mulligan said.
The Viking is the subject of state and federal scrutiny following the Aug. 9 death of Shirley Sayre, 77, who wandered out of a secure unit at the Viking and drowned in a culvert across Scott Dyer Road.
An initial investigation by state regulators found the nursing home placed several residents in “immediate jeopardy.” A $3,050 fine per day was levied Aug. 12 and remained in place until Aug. 22, requiring the Viking to pay$33,550 for that infraction.
Corrections plan accepted
Viking sent a plan of corrections to the state Department of Human Services Aug. 22, according to department spokesman Newell Augur. It has been accepted, after some minor revisions, he said.
State inspectors paid a surprise visit to the Viking the following day. “It wouldn’t have made any sense for us to go in before they’d filed a plan of corrections,” Augur said. Once a plan had been filed, though, the state wanted to check on things quickly, especially given the prospect of the Viking losing federal funding without a successful inspection, he said.
Door locks and alarms that had been malfunctioning during the Aug. 12 investigation had been fixed by the end of that day, and remained functional Aug. 23, Augur said. Individual care plans had been updated by Aug. 23, Augur said, but that’s not quite enough.
“They have completed the care plans for all the patients in the facility,” he said. “They haven’t proven to us that they can set up a system” to prevent future care plans from being incomplete.
Augur said the plan of corrections provides a strategy for doing just that, but it has not been tested yet.
Duane Rancourt, administrator at the Viking, said all the necessary corrections have been made and he is waiting for word from regulators that will allow the nursing home to admit new patients.
The biggest adjustment for staff and visitors is the keypad to get in and out of the building, he said. The code to the keypad is posted at the door, but he said that doesn’t give dementia patients an opportunity to get out because “they have a hard time with sequential things.”
Rancourt and the Viking staff also are taking advantage of a temporary slowdown in business to relocate the Medicare unit to the long-term care unit, a change that he had planned for some time, he said.
And despite regulatory criticism and scrutiny, the Viking is getting support from many family members of current and former patients.
Community support
One family member of a recent Viking Community patient, who asked not to be identified, told the Current that he was satisfied with what he called “excellent care” from Viking staff. He also said, “Alzheimer’s can strike anybody, and it always ends in death.” He went on to express support for the staff of the Viking, whom he said were “doing the best they can” dealing with patients with challenging conditions.
Selvin Hirshon, whose wife was an Alzheimer’s patient at the Viking for close to seven years before her death in February, said he strongly supports the Viking.
“I think it’s one of the best nursing homes” in the area, he said. Before moving his wife into the Viking, he said, he looked at “at least half a dozen nursing homes around here” and chose the Viking. “I think very highly of it," he said.
Hirshon said he has spoken with other family members of Viking residents who feel similarly. He said he knows a number of the staff, too, after spending “300 days a year for nearly seven years” visiting his wife. He said the staff and administration, including administrator Rancourt, “go out of their way” to be friendly to residents and to make it a nice place to live and work.
“I would give it a very high rating,” Hirshon said.
Thursday, August 22, 2002
Laptops arrive in local schools
Published in the Current
Defying state budget cuts and legislative criticism, delivery truck drivers dropped off precious cargo at middle schools across Maine in the past week. The word raced down school hallways and into administrative offices, quiet with students home for summer: Laptops!
Indeed, contrary to the wishes of some state legislators and fulfilling the dreams of middle school teachers and administrators, 160 Macintosh iBook laptop computers arrived at Cape Elizabeth Middle School Aug. 13, according to Gary Lanoie, the district technology coordinator.
“We’re very excited,” said Principal Nancy Hutton.
Judging from traffic on the state’s educational technology e-mail, Lanoie said, it appeared that most districts across the state received their laptops last week. The new arrivals are to equip each seventh-grade student with a personal laptop computer, to be taken from class to class throughout the day,
and even home from school at certain times and under certain circumstances.
About 20 laptops arrived in Cape at the end of June, so teachers could familiarize themselves with the equipment before having to teach students to use them.
Lanoie and a two-person staff have the grueling task of configuring 160 laptops to look and operate exactly alike. There is software to help with the project, but the real challenge is setting up an initial computer installation, which can then be “cloned” to the rest of the computers, Lanoie said.
Part of the problem is that the computers have multiple layers of security restrictions, and installations must take them into account, to ensure that students neither have too much access to software and settings, or too little.
Fortunately, Lanoie said, tech coordinators around the state are working together and collaborating via e-mail to solve the problems that arise. Lanoie himself found a good piece of software for cloning computers, and sent a note to his colleagues about how to make it work most effectively.
There is also a hefty manual of suggested policies and procedures for districts to use when handing out the laptops to students, and administering their use.
“There seems to have been a lot of thought in preparing the program,” Lanoie said.
He will also have some help on the ground: 19 seventh-graders have signed up to be what Lanoie is calling the “iTeam,” kids who will help each other and their teachers handle the small everyday glitches of computer use, and who can assist Lanoie in troubleshooting problems as the computers are used throughout the school.
Because of state budget woes, the laptop program was in limbo for much of the past year, and school officials were constantly qualifying planning around the laptops with phrases like “if the laptops arrive.”
The state endowment intended to pay for the program over the course of the next four years has been raided several times by Gov. Angus King to cover an increasing state budget shortfall, but the account still has money in it.
State Attorney General Steven Rowe had advised the governor earlier this summer that the state could break the contract it made with Apple to provide the laptops, additional equipment and training, but breaking the deal could cost as much as it would to go forward, according to Rowe’s interpretation of the contract.
Legislators had criticized the program because of its anticipated cost: $37.2 million over four years, which they said could be used for other things.
But the first phase of the project is in place. Next year will see another large shipment of laptops, to equip each eighth-grader with a machine as well.
Now that the laptops are here, the focus is on using them. Cape’s seventh-grade teachers are excited about the prospect and have said they are looking forward to seeing how they can use them, despite some trepidation about what the changes may mean when classes start using laptops in earnest.
Defying state budget cuts and legislative criticism, delivery truck drivers dropped off precious cargo at middle schools across Maine in the past week. The word raced down school hallways and into administrative offices, quiet with students home for summer: Laptops!
Indeed, contrary to the wishes of some state legislators and fulfilling the dreams of middle school teachers and administrators, 160 Macintosh iBook laptop computers arrived at Cape Elizabeth Middle School Aug. 13, according to Gary Lanoie, the district technology coordinator.
“We’re very excited,” said Principal Nancy Hutton.
Judging from traffic on the state’s educational technology e-mail, Lanoie said, it appeared that most districts across the state received their laptops last week. The new arrivals are to equip each seventh-grade student with a personal laptop computer, to be taken from class to class throughout the day,
and even home from school at certain times and under certain circumstances.
About 20 laptops arrived in Cape at the end of June, so teachers could familiarize themselves with the equipment before having to teach students to use them.
Lanoie and a two-person staff have the grueling task of configuring 160 laptops to look and operate exactly alike. There is software to help with the project, but the real challenge is setting up an initial computer installation, which can then be “cloned” to the rest of the computers, Lanoie said.
Part of the problem is that the computers have multiple layers of security restrictions, and installations must take them into account, to ensure that students neither have too much access to software and settings, or too little.
Fortunately, Lanoie said, tech coordinators around the state are working together and collaborating via e-mail to solve the problems that arise. Lanoie himself found a good piece of software for cloning computers, and sent a note to his colleagues about how to make it work most effectively.
There is also a hefty manual of suggested policies and procedures for districts to use when handing out the laptops to students, and administering their use.
“There seems to have been a lot of thought in preparing the program,” Lanoie said.
He will also have some help on the ground: 19 seventh-graders have signed up to be what Lanoie is calling the “iTeam,” kids who will help each other and their teachers handle the small everyday glitches of computer use, and who can assist Lanoie in troubleshooting problems as the computers are used throughout the school.
Because of state budget woes, the laptop program was in limbo for much of the past year, and school officials were constantly qualifying planning around the laptops with phrases like “if the laptops arrive.”
The state endowment intended to pay for the program over the course of the next four years has been raided several times by Gov. Angus King to cover an increasing state budget shortfall, but the account still has money in it.
State Attorney General Steven Rowe had advised the governor earlier this summer that the state could break the contract it made with Apple to provide the laptops, additional equipment and training, but breaking the deal could cost as much as it would to go forward, according to Rowe’s interpretation of the contract.
Legislators had criticized the program because of its anticipated cost: $37.2 million over four years, which they said could be used for other things.
But the first phase of the project is in place. Next year will see another large shipment of laptops, to equip each eighth-grader with a machine as well.
Now that the laptops are here, the focus is on using them. Cape’s seventh-grade teachers are excited about the prospect and have said they are looking forward to seeing how they can use them, despite some trepidation about what the changes may mean when classes start using laptops in earnest.
School renovation wish list hits $12 million
Published in the Current
After months of anticipating a $5 million to $6 million renovation plan for the high school and Pond Cove School, Cape Elizabeth school officials were surprised to learn last week that the price tag will be closer to $12 million.
At a building committee meeting Aug. 15, the board learned a comprehensive high school renovation could cost as much as $9.2 million, with a Pond Cove expansion slated to add nearly $2.7 million more.
After seeing the dollar figures, School Board Chair and building committee chair Marie Prager said, “I think everyone’s in shock.” The group had been operating under the assumption that the cost would be much lower.
The latest project designs, created by Bob Howe of Portland’s HKTA Architects, include a wide range of options that are likely to be pared significantly.
In an earlier meeting with Howe, Superintendent Tom Forcella and other school representatives had indicated a number of sections of the proposals that would not be part of a final project.
“It seems to me as if everything is included,” Forcella said when he saw the HKTA plans. Howe said the plans were a result of extensive discussions with school faculty and staff, and included ways to meet a “wish list” developed during those discussions.
“We’ve accommodated a lot of the wishes, (but) not all the wishes, ”Howe said. If the costs need to be reduced, he said, that is up to the schools. “As we explained early on, this isn’t going to be an easy process,” he said.
Prager said the building committee and the School Board need to “look at what we really need and what we can live without.”
Town Manager Mike McGovern, present at the meeting, said a new high school could cost as much as $40 million.
Howe agreed, saying, “these renovation costs are rather modest, considering the size of the building.”
Forcella said he would explore the possibility of having school maintenance staff perform some of the work in-house, which would lower labor costs and also reduce administrative expenses.
Reworking the interior
The high school renovation would have two major thrusts: redoing public spaces used by all students and by the community at large, and reconfiguring classroom and administrative space for improved academic and management use.
It would remake the locker rooms, now poorly ventilated and not handicapped-accessible, resurface the gym floor and add new gym bleachers, expand the cafeteria, reconfigure former kindergarten classrooms into high school class space, rearrange the school’s administrative and guidance offices and add at least 100 parking spaces.
Throughout the school, the proposal would upgrade the electrical and smoke detection systems, repaint or re-floor nearly every room and replace the school-wide intercom system by putting a telephone in each classroom.
McGovern said he anticipated there was as much as $1 million in project work that could be done in-house for a cost of closer to $200,000.
A new set of gym bleachers was included in the cost. The new seats would be fixed to the wall, with a motor to roll them out. Forcella said that might be overkill. “We rarely would need the seating that we have,” he said. He suggested Howe look into bleachers Forcella has seen at other schools that roll around the gym and can be arranged in a variety of positions to meet different audience needs.
Also slated for renovation is the school auditorium, which could get new seating, carpeting and lighting.
Another issue is what Howe called a “thrust stage,” a homemade addition to the front of the stage that slants down and toward the audience. It was not a part of the original design of the stage and blocks several large air return vents, limiting the ventilation of the entire auditorium, Howe said.
As much as $1.7 million of the total cost would be for work outside the building, creating new parking spaces, re-grading the hill at the main entrance to the building and providing handicapped access to the track and soccer field.
McGovern suggested scaling that work back significantly, reworking the entrance to the school and paving a couple of dirt areas already used for parking. “You could save a million bucks right there,” he said.
‘Looks like a bargain’
In comparison to the $9.2 million high school, the $2.7 million Pond Cove additions appeared cheap to the group. “The elementary school looks like a bargain,” Forcella said.
A new two-story wing housing classrooms, arts and multi-purpose space would be constructed between the town fire station and the playground.
The primary focus of the addition will be to provide space for the kindergarten classes, which have previously been housed in the high school.
The addition is more straightforward, Howe said, because all of the space and fixtures will be new, and modifications will only be made to the existing building so that the new space connects well. The cost of the new wing will be $2.4 million.
An additional $267,000 would pay for a new art room off the connection corridor between the two major sections of the building. It would also offer a new entryway from the paved courtyard between the Thomas Memorial Library and the school.
The building committee had asked Howe to break out the cost of the art room from the cost of the new wing because the two spaces are not contiguous and would serve substantially different functions.
Setting priorities
A group including Prager, Forcella, School Board finance chair Elaine Moloney and high school administrators is expected to meet in early September to set priorities for the project, in terms of what work to do first, what to phase in over time, and what not to do at all.
Moloney said she wanted to know what would happen if things were cut from what she called “this grand scheme,” and whether there was a chance any of the work might get done in the next 20 years, the projected life of the renovation.
Forcella said no. “If we don’t put it in this plan, it’s not going to happen,” he said.
“This is the time to decide what we can live with,” Prager said, anticipating significant cuts.
McGovern said the middle school and Pond Cove renovation 10 years ago cost $11.7 million. He warned that traffic and parking will be an ongoing issue for the school buildings.
“At some point you’re going to need another exit out of the high school area,” he said.
He also said that though the numbers might look less scary when residents see how much debt the town is paying off each year, the schools will still need to “sell it to the council and sell it to the town.”
Cape town councilors have said in the past that they are likely to send the proposal to a referendum, though state law does not require them to.
In response to a question from Moloney, Howe said “marketing” of the plan should begin in October, when final numbers have been set.
Though the numbers may look large, Prager asked committee members to keep a cool head. “I think we shouldn’t freak out now,” she said.
Howe gave them “everything they want” in the proposal, and the time has come to make changes and cuts to the project.
“There’s a lot more here than we really need,” Prager said. But still, cuts won’t come easily. “This is going to be hard,” she said.
After months of anticipating a $5 million to $6 million renovation plan for the high school and Pond Cove School, Cape Elizabeth school officials were surprised to learn last week that the price tag will be closer to $12 million.
At a building committee meeting Aug. 15, the board learned a comprehensive high school renovation could cost as much as $9.2 million, with a Pond Cove expansion slated to add nearly $2.7 million more.
After seeing the dollar figures, School Board Chair and building committee chair Marie Prager said, “I think everyone’s in shock.” The group had been operating under the assumption that the cost would be much lower.
The latest project designs, created by Bob Howe of Portland’s HKTA Architects, include a wide range of options that are likely to be pared significantly.
In an earlier meeting with Howe, Superintendent Tom Forcella and other school representatives had indicated a number of sections of the proposals that would not be part of a final project.
“It seems to me as if everything is included,” Forcella said when he saw the HKTA plans. Howe said the plans were a result of extensive discussions with school faculty and staff, and included ways to meet a “wish list” developed during those discussions.
“We’ve accommodated a lot of the wishes, (but) not all the wishes, ”Howe said. If the costs need to be reduced, he said, that is up to the schools. “As we explained early on, this isn’t going to be an easy process,” he said.
Prager said the building committee and the School Board need to “look at what we really need and what we can live without.”
Town Manager Mike McGovern, present at the meeting, said a new high school could cost as much as $40 million.
Howe agreed, saying, “these renovation costs are rather modest, considering the size of the building.”
Forcella said he would explore the possibility of having school maintenance staff perform some of the work in-house, which would lower labor costs and also reduce administrative expenses.
Reworking the interior
The high school renovation would have two major thrusts: redoing public spaces used by all students and by the community at large, and reconfiguring classroom and administrative space for improved academic and management use.
It would remake the locker rooms, now poorly ventilated and not handicapped-accessible, resurface the gym floor and add new gym bleachers, expand the cafeteria, reconfigure former kindergarten classrooms into high school class space, rearrange the school’s administrative and guidance offices and add at least 100 parking spaces.
Throughout the school, the proposal would upgrade the electrical and smoke detection systems, repaint or re-floor nearly every room and replace the school-wide intercom system by putting a telephone in each classroom.
McGovern said he anticipated there was as much as $1 million in project work that could be done in-house for a cost of closer to $200,000.
A new set of gym bleachers was included in the cost. The new seats would be fixed to the wall, with a motor to roll them out. Forcella said that might be overkill. “We rarely would need the seating that we have,” he said. He suggested Howe look into bleachers Forcella has seen at other schools that roll around the gym and can be arranged in a variety of positions to meet different audience needs.
Also slated for renovation is the school auditorium, which could get new seating, carpeting and lighting.
Another issue is what Howe called a “thrust stage,” a homemade addition to the front of the stage that slants down and toward the audience. It was not a part of the original design of the stage and blocks several large air return vents, limiting the ventilation of the entire auditorium, Howe said.
As much as $1.7 million of the total cost would be for work outside the building, creating new parking spaces, re-grading the hill at the main entrance to the building and providing handicapped access to the track and soccer field.
McGovern suggested scaling that work back significantly, reworking the entrance to the school and paving a couple of dirt areas already used for parking. “You could save a million bucks right there,” he said.
‘Looks like a bargain’
In comparison to the $9.2 million high school, the $2.7 million Pond Cove additions appeared cheap to the group. “The elementary school looks like a bargain,” Forcella said.
A new two-story wing housing classrooms, arts and multi-purpose space would be constructed between the town fire station and the playground.
The primary focus of the addition will be to provide space for the kindergarten classes, which have previously been housed in the high school.
The addition is more straightforward, Howe said, because all of the space and fixtures will be new, and modifications will only be made to the existing building so that the new space connects well. The cost of the new wing will be $2.4 million.
An additional $267,000 would pay for a new art room off the connection corridor between the two major sections of the building. It would also offer a new entryway from the paved courtyard between the Thomas Memorial Library and the school.
The building committee had asked Howe to break out the cost of the art room from the cost of the new wing because the two spaces are not contiguous and would serve substantially different functions.
Setting priorities
A group including Prager, Forcella, School Board finance chair Elaine Moloney and high school administrators is expected to meet in early September to set priorities for the project, in terms of what work to do first, what to phase in over time, and what not to do at all.
Moloney said she wanted to know what would happen if things were cut from what she called “this grand scheme,” and whether there was a chance any of the work might get done in the next 20 years, the projected life of the renovation.
Forcella said no. “If we don’t put it in this plan, it’s not going to happen,” he said.
“This is the time to decide what we can live with,” Prager said, anticipating significant cuts.
McGovern said the middle school and Pond Cove renovation 10 years ago cost $11.7 million. He warned that traffic and parking will be an ongoing issue for the school buildings.
“At some point you’re going to need another exit out of the high school area,” he said.
He also said that though the numbers might look less scary when residents see how much debt the town is paying off each year, the schools will still need to “sell it to the council and sell it to the town.”
Cape town councilors have said in the past that they are likely to send the proposal to a referendum, though state law does not require them to.
In response to a question from Moloney, Howe said “marketing” of the plan should begin in October, when final numbers have been set.
Though the numbers may look large, Prager asked committee members to keep a cool head. “I think we shouldn’t freak out now,” she said.
Howe gave them “everything they want” in the proposal, and the time has come to make changes and cuts to the project.
“There’s a lot more here than we really need,” Prager said. But still, cuts won’t come easily. “This is going to be hard,” she said.
Cape readies for school start Aug. 29
Published in the Current
Cape Elizabeth schools are getting set for school to begin Aug. 29, and returning students will see a few changes this year.
At Pond Cove School, new playgrounds may be in place in time for school to start, or soon thereafter, according to Principal Tom Eismeier. Erik Nielsen will start as a permanent fourth-grade teacher, and two other new teachers will be filling in for people on leave, Eismeier said.
Some furniture has changed hands, too. “There was a fair amount of room switching,” he said.
At the middle school, the big news is the laptops, according to Principal Nancy Hutton. “We’re very excited,” she said. Laptop computers have arrived for the seventh graders and are being readied for distribution in the first couple of weeks of school.
Also new this year will be the week that seventh-graders go to Camp Kieve as part of their outdoor education program. Rather than after Thanksgiving, as in the past, Hutton said the trip will happen in October.
At the high school, the science curriculum is the largest change, with freshmen starting a new science class sequence, starting with physics and moving to chemistry, and biology in subsequent years, followed by a science elective senior year, said Principal Jeff Shedd.
This places a large load on the science teachers during the transition, in which juniors and freshmen will be studying physics, though they will use very different approaches, including different textbooks, mathematical complexities and experiments, Shedd said.
All high school teachers will have time off each week with other members of their departments, to work on assessment planning. “It will be a real stimulus
to teachers working together, ” Shedd said.
District-wide, teachers will continue to work on curriculum and professional development on their own time, said Superintendent Tom Forcella. The district is also beginning a partnership with a district in Pennsylvania and one in Missouri, to “move our districts to another level,” Forcella said.
The alliance, which Forcella said will expand to as many as four other districts in the eastern part of the U.S., is modeled on a similar program in several western states. The first meeting of the three districts will be in October, and will begin to address the issues schools have in common, aside from state funding issues commonly discussed at intra-state gatherings of schools. The idea is to make the districts stronger on a larger scale than just Maine, Forcella said.
“Our kids compete nationally and, eventually, globally,” he said.
Budget cuts also weigh on Forcella and school officials. Cape’s state funding for schools was cut by $40,000 over the summer, and Forcella thinks it’s not over yet. “This is just the beginning,” he said, noting that state budget deficit figures are projected to increase to as much as $1 billion in the next three years.
Forcella said the district has been hard-pressed to find qualified science, foreign language and special education teachers during the summer hiring processes. He said the problem is there are fewer applicants for available
positions, and added that many foreign language teacher training programs prepare people to teach high school students. Much of the need, especially in Cape Elizabeth, he said, is for primary-level foreign language teachers.
Cape Elizabeth schools are getting set for school to begin Aug. 29, and returning students will see a few changes this year.
At Pond Cove School, new playgrounds may be in place in time for school to start, or soon thereafter, according to Principal Tom Eismeier. Erik Nielsen will start as a permanent fourth-grade teacher, and two other new teachers will be filling in for people on leave, Eismeier said.
Some furniture has changed hands, too. “There was a fair amount of room switching,” he said.
At the middle school, the big news is the laptops, according to Principal Nancy Hutton. “We’re very excited,” she said. Laptop computers have arrived for the seventh graders and are being readied for distribution in the first couple of weeks of school.
Also new this year will be the week that seventh-graders go to Camp Kieve as part of their outdoor education program. Rather than after Thanksgiving, as in the past, Hutton said the trip will happen in October.
At the high school, the science curriculum is the largest change, with freshmen starting a new science class sequence, starting with physics and moving to chemistry, and biology in subsequent years, followed by a science elective senior year, said Principal Jeff Shedd.
This places a large load on the science teachers during the transition, in which juniors and freshmen will be studying physics, though they will use very different approaches, including different textbooks, mathematical complexities and experiments, Shedd said.
All high school teachers will have time off each week with other members of their departments, to work on assessment planning. “It will be a real stimulus
to teachers working together, ” Shedd said.
District-wide, teachers will continue to work on curriculum and professional development on their own time, said Superintendent Tom Forcella. The district is also beginning a partnership with a district in Pennsylvania and one in Missouri, to “move our districts to another level,” Forcella said.
The alliance, which Forcella said will expand to as many as four other districts in the eastern part of the U.S., is modeled on a similar program in several western states. The first meeting of the three districts will be in October, and will begin to address the issues schools have in common, aside from state funding issues commonly discussed at intra-state gatherings of schools. The idea is to make the districts stronger on a larger scale than just Maine, Forcella said.
“Our kids compete nationally and, eventually, globally,” he said.
Budget cuts also weigh on Forcella and school officials. Cape’s state funding for schools was cut by $40,000 over the summer, and Forcella thinks it’s not over yet. “This is just the beginning,” he said, noting that state budget deficit figures are projected to increase to as much as $1 billion in the next three years.
Forcella said the district has been hard-pressed to find qualified science, foreign language and special education teachers during the summer hiring processes. He said the problem is there are fewer applicants for available
positions, and added that many foreign language teacher training programs prepare people to teach high school students. Much of the need, especially in Cape Elizabeth, he said, is for primary-level foreign language teachers.
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