Camden, Rockport voters defeat $28 million middle school campus project

Lynda Clancy

Tue, 02/10/2015 - 9:00pm

Ballot clerks Brenda Richardson and Fay Doucette, in Rockport, Feb. 10. The voting took place in the Richardson Room at the Rockport Town Office. That room is named in honor of Brenda, who was town clerk for many years in Rockport. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)

Midday at the Washington Street Meeting Room in Camden, Feb. 10. (Photo by Chris Wolf)

Ballot clerks Heaven Bartlett and Rockport Assistant Town Clerk Shay Grant. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)

Rockport’s election moderator Marieta Wheaton and ballot clerk Ann. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)

Sid Lindsley helps at the polls in Camden. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)

Brenda Kurr, Deputy Town Clerk in Rockport. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)

Heaven Bartlett, Walter Greenlaw, Herbert Annis and Marieta Wheaton get the ballots on the table to count just after 8 p.m. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)

The ballot. (Photo by Chris Wolf)

Former Rockport Town Clerk Brenda Richardson with current Town Clerk Linda Greenlaw. (Photo by Lynda Clancy)

CAMDEN and ROCKPORT — A proposed overhaul of the Camden-Rockport Middle School and its campus has been rejected by voters in the two towns.

Voting on the project took place today, Feb. 10, at the Rockport Town Office and the Washington Street Meeting Room in Camden.

Rockport voted 233 in favor, and 398 against, for a total of 631 ballots cast.

Camden voted 435 in favor, and voted 548 against, for a total 983 ballots cast.

The turnout in both towns was solid throughout the day, according to town clerks Katrina Oakes (Camden) and Linda Greenlaw (Rockport). Approximately 1,000 voters trekked to the polls in Camden, braving icy sidewalks; whiile close to 600 drove to the Rockport Town Office. Rockport received 60 absentee ballots and Camden, 99.

“I think it is a good turnout for this type of election, especially,” said Greenlaw. “It beat my expectation.”

Maine School Administrative District 28, which oversees Camden-Rockport’s Kindergarten through eighth-grade public schools (Camden-Rockport Elementary School, on Route 90 in Rockport, and Camden-Rockport Middle School, on Knowlton Street in Camden), spent the last 18 months analyzing the future of the Knowlton Street campus.

In 2013, Camden and Rockport approved a $125,000 expenditure to hire Portland-based Oak Point Associates to assess the Camden-Rockport Middle School campus. Following a yearlong process, which included four public forums, the architects delivered their conclusion: Building a new school on Knowlton Street would be the better alternative to renovating the existing structure.

Following a series of community forums and consultation with architects, the board decided to pursue tearing down existing buildings there, except for the Mary E. Taylor brick building, and building a new middle school structure in its place.

The school board, as well as administrators, believed that a new well-designed middle school housing fifth- through eighth-grades would establish a more collaborative and effective learning space.

The Mary E. Taylor building would also have been renovated to house the central office, Zenith Program and Adult Education.

The project also included overhauling all the ball fields and the playground.

Related links:
SAD 28’s website for project materials

Opinion: Camden Rockport Middle School project examined

Letter to the editor: School board responds to Camden Planning Board project concerns

Camden Planning concerns about middle school project

Camden-Rockport leaders skeptical of $28 million middle school project

Read about the March 20 forum: Camden-Rockport board endorses public straw vote: Tear down, rebuild middle school

What to do with Camden-Rockport Middle School: Tear down, renovate, rebuild?

Camden-Rockport Middle School concepts floated: ‘Everything in pencil’

Reach Editorial Director Lynda Clancy at lyndaclancy@penbaypilot.com; 207-706-6657