OXFORD — School officials say that without state money, their options to ease overcrowding and address other issues at the Oxford Hills Middle School is limited.

A feasibility study by Harriman Architects and Engineers in Auburn is looking at alternatives to the problems. They include adding to and renovating the school on Pine Street in Paris, removing portables, using alternative community-based facilities and building a new middle school.

But with costs for building and/or renovating between $21 million and $23 million dollars, Superintendent Rick Colpitts said it is impossible to consider building a new school or make renovations that will address the problems without financial assistance from the state.

“Not at this time,” he said when asked if new construction or major renovation options were available.

Six options have been detailed in the Harriman report, but half of them are for new construction or major renovation.

Only two or three projects are funded each year by the state Department of Education, but the Oxford Hills School District is listed 26th on the priority list. At this rate, money for new construction could takes years, school officials said.

Colpitts said the lack of state aid for major work leaves only three options: replacing or renovating the portables, leasing space at the Madison Avenue building in Oxford or constructing a temporary modular addition to the school.

“The options will be used until we qualify for state-approved school construction funding,” Colpitts said. “The state accepts applications every three years. We will continue to reapply as permitted by the state.”

The Operations Committee and school officials recently toured the former Madison Avenue School, a building owned by Bob Bahre and used while the Paris Elementary School was under construction about five years ago.

Colpitts said officials will ask the state to assist with the leasing costs, up to $8 per foot for five years.

If the leased option is approved by the Board of Directors, the building would allow the school to eliminate the seven portables that were installed about 25 years ago at the Middle School complex.

Today, rot and other issues have forced the closure of at least one classroom in the portable units. Security concerns for the students and staff who travel between the portable classrooms and the main school building each day in open view is also a concern, said officials.

Portables are problematic

“The whole idea behind (the building project) is to get rid of the portables,” Operations Committee Chairman Nick DiConzo said. He has served on the Board of Directors and the Operations Committee for more than 10 years.

“I think anything they do should be long term,” he said. “We need to have state or federal dollars to do it.” 

The costs to replace the portables are about $1 million for a lease/purchase agreement for all seven, or between $105,000 and $350,000 in local money to renovate them, Colpitts said.

DiConzo said that, years ago, the state funded as many as 16 projects each year. But with dwindling money and increasing numbers of schools statewide needing attention, the actual number funded projects is down to several, at most.

“It used to be everybody got a fair share,” he said. “Now there just isn’t any money there. Twenty-one, twenty-two million dollars is a lot of money,” he said.

The next step in the process will come Feb. 11, when the Operations Committee reviews the Harriman report again and receives more specific information, including transportation costs, DiConzo said.

The full Board of Directors will have to vote on the final option.

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SIDEBAR

Options for Oxford Hills Middle School

OXFORD — Harriman Architects and Engineers of Auburn has presented the SAD 17 Operations Committee with six options to address health, safety and overcrowding issues at the Oxford Hills Middle School. They are:

* Renovate the Shaw Wing, renovate the middle school and build an addition to the middle school.

* Build a middle school and demolish the existing one; renovate the Shaw Wing and renovate the middle school.

* Renovate the Mildred Fox School in Paris, now in private use, for education space and build an addition to the middle school.

* Renovate the Shaw Wing, renovate the middle school, build an addition to the middle school and build a locally-funded auditorium.

* Build a middle school, including a locally-funded auditorium, and demolish the existing middle school.

* Renovate the Shaw Wing, renovate the middle school, renovate the Mildred Fox School for educational space and build and addition to the middle school, including a locally-funded auditorium.

The Shaw Wing, the oldest part of the middle school, is in the same area as the main office.