Elected Officials in Cape Elizabeth Consider Ways to Scale Back Plans for New Middle School Following Voters’ Rejection of $94.7 Million Bond

The Town of Cape Elizabeth is revisiting the possibility of constructing a new middle school after voters narrowly rejected $94.7 million proposal for the project in November.

The “Middle Ground School Project Design” bond was rejected by just 166 votes, representing only 2.47 percent of those who turned out to the polls.

The $89.9 million “Middle Ground School Project Design” had been developed after two years of deliberation by the School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC), and was accompanied on the ballot by a $4.8 million addition proposed by then-Chairman Tim Reiniger that would preserve part of the existing middle school.

The Middle Ground proposal included plans to construct a new middle school, as well as to make a number of essential upgrades to the elementary and high schools.

[RELATED: Cape Elizabeth Voters Narrowly Reject Proposal to Construct New Middle School]

A document from the Town’s Bond Counsel, Joe Cuetara, broke down the long term tax impact that these projects would have had on residents if the $94.7 million bond were approved.

Based on a rate of 3.5 percent over thirty years, Cape Elizabeth residents could have expected to see their property taxes increase a total of 12.2 percent over the course of several years, beginning with a 2 percent hike in the 2026/2027 tax year.

This would have been followed by a 6.1 percent increase the next year and a 4.1 percent raise in the third year.

In August, Town Councilors rejected a $42 million alternative proposed by Chairman Reiniger that represented a pared back version of this proposal, one that would only make “critically needed building repairs and renovations” to the school buildings instead of constructing an entirely new building.

“This proposal, which would represent a 5% tax increase, is not meant to undermine or take away from the School Board’s proposed new middle school, but rather to provide a minimum alternative should town citizens prefer a smaller tax impact,” said Reiniger in a statement at the time.

During a December 10 School Board meeting, Lisa Sawin of Harriman Architects presented a number of potential space reductions that could be made in order to reduce the total project cost.

One potential change — reducing classroom sizes by 25 square feet — would save about $100,000 in total and would respond to the October 29 Enrollment Report showing a 0.7 percent enrollment decrease, or about 10 students, between the years 2024/25 to 2034/35 in the Town.

Sawin explained during the meeting that square footage “makes the biggest impact” in terms of the bottom line for a project like this.

In addition to shrinking the classrooms, Harriman Architects proposed a number of other potential ways to scale back the project, such as making the gym according to middle school regulations, as opposed to high school regulations as was originally planned.

The architects also suggested reducing the bleachers by 50 percent, as well as the shower area and lockers by 50 percent.

Assuming that a referendum for the proposal were held in June 2025, these changes would result in a combined $659,321 drop in the project’s total price.

Another area where potential reductions could be made is in the band and chorus rooms, where the original ask was “much larger than we see in most school projects” and “much greater” than what the Maine Department of Education includes in schools they fund.

Taken together, these changes to the plan would result in $417,554 worth of costs that could potentially be cut.

Harriman Architects also laid out the potential cost savings with removing a “mindfulness classroom” from the plan for the middle school, allowing for up to more than $250,000 in savings.

Sawin also indicated that the cafeteria could be resized so that students would eat in three to four separate lunch periods, as opposed to just two as under the original proposal, saving over $350,000.

Another option suggested by the architects was eliminating the addition of a STEM classroom, which would cost nearly $650,000.

Removing a backup, or “redundant,” heating system to be used in case of extended power outages from the plan would cut about $1 million off the total cost of the project.

Sawin later explained in response to a question from the Board that backup systems such as that which was being considered are “not often included” in new construction builds and are typically only seen in facilities such as an emergency shelter.

If the Town were to make all of these cuts as laid out in the table presented during last week’s meeting, it would result in as much as $3.5 million worth of savings.

Sawin cautioned in her presentation, however, that all these figures are only preliminary and should not be taken as an exact representation of the potential cost savings associated with these changes down the line.

She also suggested that the Town could potentially explore asking residents to weigh in on some of these items separately at the ballot box, allowing them to consider a base proposal separately from some of these other expenses.

Click Here to See the Full PowerPoint Presentation

During a joint meeting of the School Board and Town Council held two days later on December 12, local lawmakers spent around an hour discussing “next steps” in light of the residents’ rejection of the $94.7 million bond package this past month.

Public comment on the issue was mixed, with some advocating in support of getting a new plan in front of voters as soon as possible while others raised concerns about the possibility forcing a substantial tax increase on the residents who have already rejected something similar.

Members of the Board and Council discussed the potential timing of a new referendum, as well as what steps will need to be taken to develop an updated version of this proposal to send to voters.

Using the presentation made two days earlier by Sawin of Harriman Architects as a reference point, the Councilors and Board Members concluded that there is a great deal of work to be done in order to effectively put together a new proposal that strikes an effective and appropriate balance between the needs of students and the needs of Cape Elizabeth taxpayers.

No decisions regarding the updated proposal for a new middle school were made during Thursday night’s meeting.