Scarborough Schools Building Advisory Committee - SBAC

11/05/2025

11/04/2025

There’s still time to come out and vote today! On the ballot for the town is the K-8 School
Solution Referendum!

The K-8 Schools Solution asks 2 Referendum Questions.

Question 1, if approved by voters, will allocate up to $129.85 million for renovations, additions, and new construction to Scarborough’s five schools serving grades K-8 schools (Blue Point, Eight Corners, Pleasant Hill, Wentworth, and the Middle School). This project will address key needs impacting 2,000+ Scarborough students, including overcrowding, growing enrollment, safety & security, and aging/outdated infrastructure.

Question 2, if approved by voters, will allocate up to $10M to construct a larger addition to the Middle School to accommodate increased enrollment expected in 2034. Question 2 is contingent on Question 1 passing.

Visit the project website to view the plans for each of the five schools, view Frequently Asked Questions, or use the Tax Impact Calculator Tool. www.scarboroughschools.org/building-project

11/04/2025

The K-8 Schools Solution on the ballot today asks 2 Referendum Questions.

Question 1, if approved by voters, will allocate up to $129.85 million for renovations, additions, and new construction to Scarborough’s five schools serving grades K-8 schools (Blue Point, Eight Corners, Pleasant Hill, Wentworth, and the Middle School). This project will address key needs impacting 2,000+ Scarborough students, including overcrowding, growing enrollment, safety & security, and aging/outdated infrastructure.

Question 2, if approved by voters, will allocate up to $10M to construct a larger addition to the Middle School to accommodate increased enrollment expected in 2034. Question 2 is contingent on Question 1 passing.

Visit the project website to view the plans for each of the five schools, view Frequently Asked Questions, or use the Tax Impact Calculator Tool. www.scarboroughschools.org/building-project

11/04/2025

The K-8 Schools Solution going to voters November 4th asks 2 Referendum Questions.

Question 1, if approved by voters, will allocate up to $129.85 million for renovations, additions, and new construction to Scarborough’s five schools serving grades K-8 schools (Blue Point, Eight Corners, Pleasant Hill, Wentworth, and the Middle School). This project will address key needs impacting 2,000+ Scarborough students, including overcrowding, growing enrollment, safety & security, and aging/outdated infrastructure.

Question 2, if approved by voters, will allocate up to $10M to construct a larger addition to the Middle School to accommodate increased enrollment expected in 2034. Question 2 is contingent on Question 1 passing.

Visit the project website to view the plans for each of the five schools, view Frequently Asked Questions, or use the Tax Impact Calculator Tool. www.scarboroughschools.org/building-project

11/04/2025

Please remember to come out and vote today! On the ballot for the town is the K-8 School
Solution Referendum!

The K-8 Schools Solution asks 2 Referendum Questions.

Question 1, if approved by voters, will allocate up to $129.85 million for renovations, additions, and new construction to Scarborough’s five schools serving grades K-8 schools (Blue Point, Eight Corners, Pleasant Hill, Wentworth, and the Middle School). This project will address key needs impacting 2,000+ Scarborough students, including overcrowding, growing enrollment, safety & security, and aging/outdated infrastructure.

Question 2, if approved by voters, will allocate up to $10M to construct a larger addition to the Middle School to accommodate increased enrollment expected in 2034. Question 2 is contingent on Question 1 passing.

Visit the project website to view the plans for each of the five schools, view Frequently Asked Questions, or use the Tax Impact Calculator Tool. www.scarboroughschools.org/building-project

11/03/2025

What are the impacts if we wait to address our K-8 schools?

An incoming surge of nearly 200 additional students are expected to enter the K-2 schools in 2028-29 (based on children already born in Scarborough), then move through Wentworth and the Middle School.

Our K-2 schools and Middle School are already undersized to serve present day programming needs. Overcrowding is more than just the number of students in a school—it includes the availability of space for legally-mandated programs and services. Most of our schools were built prior to current day program and service requirements. As these requirements have increased, additional space is needed to reasonably accommodate them.

The compact K-2 sites are already strained and have no room to add more portables on site. If we delay further, temporary solutions will have to be funded to address this influx of students until a permanent solution can be approved.

Further delay prolongs existing concerns including safety & security; overcrowded schools and too few learning spaces to support programming; inefficient HVAC that drives up energy costs; and more.

Construction costs continue to rise, which means dollars won’t go as far in the future to address our needs.

Check out more FAQs and see the plans for each of Scarborough’s K-8 schools by visiting the project website at: www.scarboroughschools.org/building-project

11/02/2025

Click below to read the thoughtful essay written by 25-year teaching veteran, Robin Viola—a teacher at Scarborough Middle School—as she shares a teacher’s perspective about why the K-8 Schools Solution is needed.

Link to Robin’s full essay:
https://www.scarboroughschools.org/building-project/details/~board/school-building-project-sbac/post/a-teachers-perspective-on-the-challenges-our-schools-face

10/31/2025

See the plans for each of the 5 schools serving grades K-8 by visiting the project website:

https://www.scarboroughschools.org/building-project/project-history

The K-8 Schools Solution is on the ballot November 4th.

10/31/2025

The middle school was undersized the day it opened. Spaces like the cafeteria are too small to adequately support the existing middle school population. These space constraints result in lunch times ranging from 10:30am to 1:30 PM (the school day ends less than an hour later).

2 of the 6 lunch periods are “split lunches,” which means classes that are paused half way through to break for lunch in the middle. This is disruptive to learning.

Referendum Question #1 addresses space needs at all 5 of our schools serving grades K-8, including the Middle School.

At the Middle School, Question 1 enlarges the cafeteria to address these space constraints. Also included are: a permanent building addition to accommodate the current MS enrollment in the main building, adequate space for art and music programming, a right-sized nurse office, and a small entry addition for improved safety & security.

Referendum Question #2 builds a larger classroom addition at the Middle School to be able to accommodate projected enrollment expected in 2034-35.

Learn more about what is included for each of the five schools in the K-8 schools solution by visiting the project website: www.scarboroughschools.org/building-project

10/29/2025

Addressing overcrowding is a key focus for the school project, to ensure all students have the space they need for learning and required services. Overcrowding is about more than just the number of students in a given school. It includes the availability (or lack) of space for legally mandated programs and services. When most of Scarborough’s schools were built, program and service requirements were significantly lower than they are today. As those requirements have grown, additional space is needed to reasonably accommodate those needs.

Some examples of these legally required needs for additional space are:

Accommodating and supporting our special education students
Providing intervention services under Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) for any general education student not making adequate academic progress
Support for Multilingual Learners (MLL) students

Additionally, overcrowding also refers to having multiple programming needs share spaces that were not designed to accommodate this type of sharing.

Some examples of this are:

Music and art sharing the same small rooms, requiring significant restructuring of the room between classes.
Physical Education (PE) and the food service cafeteria sharing the same space, resulting in crowding issues like folded up tables being covered in pads to prevent children from running into them during PE.

Learn more about how the K-8 Schools Solution addresses these challenges at:

http://www.scarboroughschools.org/building-project