Throughout the state public schools are working around budget cuts. Teachers are forced to make do with less while still passing increasingly loftier educational goals. Maine teachers are forced to wait longer to buy new reading material or classroom supplies. Educational budget cuts have even begun to take away jobs. With all this emphasis on money in education why is the town of Ashland, Maine building a multi-million dollar new school building funded primarily by the state?
The new school has many innovative and useful design features to bring to the small community. The two original school buildings will be consolidated into one Pre-K to Senior facility. The two story design will allow maximum separation of high school and elementary students with the younger children primarily on the first floor and older students concentrated on the second floor. A new wood and metal shop, regulation size gymnasium, and above ground cafeteria will be located on the ground floor. The second floor will house new science labs, distance learning rooms, and spare group work locations. The school is designed to modern standards of energy efficiency, and interior environment conditions.
This new facility with its great features does come at a price, roughly 22,000,000 dollars. Of this sum the Town of Ashland is only required to pay 1,720,000 dollars. The rest of the cost will be paid for by the state. The eighteen acres of land purchased for the new school's development is worth 275,000 dollars. 235,000 dollars of this will be paid by the state. This school project is a very large expenditure our state has sanctioned.
The construction of the new school facility worth this exuberant cost. The new facility will unit the two schools saving money through consolidation of resources. It will be more efficient to heat, transport students, and manage. Two entirely different and stand alone staffs were required to run the separate buildings this will be eliminated in the new structure. Custodians and other staff will not need to shift back and forth between the two structures wasting time, equipment, and gas. The new one building design will save on heating in not only presenting less surface area to the elements, but in its new better insulated design.
The older buildings were out-dated to the point of not complying with several regulations. The most prominent of these was the cafeteria in the elementary school located in the basement. Ordinances for public cafeterias require them to be above ground for fire safety reasons. The new gymnasium will also bring the school into compliance with a regulation size basket ball court, allowing the Ashland basketball teams will be able to compete in their own gym.
The education of future generations is the cornerstone of a civilization. Often when thinking about schooling we focus on books, computers, and other learning tools. It is easy to take the buildings that house and facilitate this accumulation of knowledge for granted.


Resources

Major capital school construction projects 2004-2005 project information. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.maine.gov/education/const/pr700.html

New msad #32 pre-k - 12 school. (2009, May 09). Retrieved from http://www.sad32.org/new-school-proposal.html