Schematic Design Plans:
Background Informaton
Building Committee Minutes
Notice of Public Information Hearings
1818 visitors have visited this site since 25 September, 9:03am
Education 'Thanks everybody': Camden-Rockport digs in for school expansion
ROCKPORT (March 4): With warming temperatures and a March breeze tugging at their yellow hard hats, Camden-Rockport kindergarten to fourth-grade students poured onto the tarmac on Tuesday to help get the groundwork under way for their school expansion.
 |
| Maine School Administrative District 28 board member Lynn Johnson has been a primary mover and shaker behind reuniting the kindergarten through four grades back into one facility since the Camden-Rockport school district acquired Rockport Elementary School West from the Children's House Montessori School in 2004. Johnson took the time Tuesday morning to thank everyone in the school and broader community for accomplishing the goal. (Photo by Lynda Clancy) |
"We truly have a treasure here in Camden and Rockport," said Maine School Administrative District 28 Superintendent Pat Hopkins, thanking the community, teachers, town and school officials for making the project possible.
Rockport resident Phil Higgins addressed the crowd and told the students, some of whom arrived by bus from Rockport Elementary School East and Camden-Rockport Middle School, that "you students are the first."
 |
| Third- and fourth-grade students thank the taxpayers. (Photo by Lynda Clancy) |
Someday, he told them, "some of you will bring your children here to this school."
"You need a place to go to school," he said. "You are the most important people in this project."
Higgins also thanked the teachers, telling them that besides being accomplished educators, "you have always cared for our children."
 |
| This future student, Drew Butchart of Rockport, is happy to be at the groundbreaking ceremony at Rockport Elementary School West. (Photo by Lynda Clancy) |
 |
| The quiet man in the background who could be considered as ultimately responsible for all that took place at the groundbreaking Tuesday morning is Rockport Elementary School fourth-grade teacher Stuart Finkelstein, who founded the Children's House Montessori School decades ago in Camden. In 1997, he and others built a new Montessori School on Route 90, which was sold to Maine School Administrative District 28 in 2004 and is now being expanded as Camden-Rockport's public kindergarten to fourth-grade school. (Photo by Lynda Clancy) |
In December, the SAD 28 School Board hired Portland construction company Langford and Low for $11.9 million to complete the 60,000-square-foot expansion to the existing RES West building, which was originally constructed in 1997 as the Children's House Montessori School.
SAD 28 purchased the school in 2004 for $2.6 million from the Montessori School following the discovery of mold in a wing of RES East. Kindergarten was subsequently shuffled to the seventh-grade wing of the Camden-Rockport Middle School, while grades three and four moved into RES West.
The Elm Street School in Camden was then leased to the Montessori School, where it remains.
The expansion will allow SAD 28 to once again house its kindergarten to fourth grades in one building. Currently, grades one and two remain at RES East, three and four are at RES West, and kindergarten still occupies classrooms in the seventh-grade wing on Knowlton Street.
The total project cost is $14.5 million, plus interest, and is shouldered entirely by Camden and Rockport taxpayers, with no help from the state of Maine.
Because construction bids arrived higher than expected, the school board's building committee has been cutting project costs; to date, approximately $450,000.
 |
| Students break ground with golden shovels. (Photo by Lynda Clancy) |
 |
| Maine School Administrative District 28 Superintendent Pat Hopkins tells the community, "We truly have a treasure here in Camden and Rockport," and thanks school officials, teachers and community members. (Photo by Lynda Clancy) |
 |
| Rockport officials join Rockport Elementary School Principal Jan Staples and Superintendent Pat Hopkins for Tuesday's event. Behind them, from left, are Rockport Planning and Community Development Director Tom Ford, select board member Tom Murphy, Town Manager Robert Peabody and select board member Alex Arau. (Photo by Lynda Clancy) |
 |
| The sign says it all. (Photo by Lynda Clancy) |
 |
| A crowd of hard-hatted students and community dignitaries gather Tuesday morning to celebrate the groundbreaking for the Rockport Elementary School West expansion. (Photo by Lynda Clancy) |
Good news! MSAD #28 is pleased to announce that a construction contract was officially signed on Wednesday, November 28, with Langford & Low Construction Company to oversee the addition at Rockport Elementary School's West Campus on Route 90.
The contract price is $11,903,500, which falls within the District's remaining budgeted amount for the project that was approved by voters in 2006. However, the bids came in much higher than expected, and the contract amount includes the construction contingency. Accordingly, the District, contractor and architects are looking at value engineering options to reduce costs by more than $500,000 to restore as much of the budgeted contingency as possible.
Some possible modifications on the table include using less expensive vinyl tile throughout the building, rather than the preferred green? option of linoleum, the use of synthetic flooring rather than hardwood in the gymnasium, and other potential cuts that will require some difficult choices.
However, in spite of the difficulty, the District is happy to be moving forward. In an email to the School Board and Building Committee, Superintendent Patricia Hopkins stated, The signing of this contract is especially exciting given that it is the culmination of years of hard work for many of us.? Hopkins went on to thank those who have devoted countless hours toward bringing this project to fruition.
Building Committee Chair Lynn Johnson echoed Hopkins' enthusiasm. I'm really just thrilled that we're finally at this point.? However, challenges lie directly ahead, as decisions regarding cost savings must be made before Christmas. Value engineering means finding ways to save money on a project that is already very lean,? said Johnson. We have to make sure any steps we take to economize put the needs of our children first.?
The District has faced many facilities challenges over the years. The Rockport Elementary School East Campus constructed in 1953 has outlasted its intended lifespan. Many structural components are beyond repair, and mechanical and electrical systems are in need of replacement. Overcrowding due to an enrollment surge added to the school's problems, which reached a crisis point in 2004 when a burst pipe led to the discovery of a dangerous strain of mold in the former Kindergarten wing. The Kindergartners were temporarily moved to Camden-Rockport Middle School, where they remain today. Currently grades K-4 are split between three campuses.
Langford & Low plans a site visit in the next couple of weeks to get the project rolling, and expects to complete the work according to the District's timeline. This means that in the fall of 2009, Camden-Rockport residents will finally see all kindergarten through fourth grade students together under one roof.
For details, please see the minutes of the Special School Board/Building Committee November 26 Meeting.
The following is excerpted from an artcle by Lynda Clancy, VillageSoup/Knox County Times Reporter
Camden-Rockport Board Affirms School Expansion
CAMDEN (Oct 19): School Administrative District 28 board members voted unanimously Wednesday night to proceed with expansion plans at Rockport Elementary School, saying the project is too imperative to abandon.
"We know we need the school and we know the voters have approved it," said board member Jim Patterson of Camden.
The discussion arose from conversations taking place at a recent meeting of the Five Town Regional Planning Committee, whose members are charged with working out the details of consolidating the K-12 school districts of Appleton, Camden, Hope, Lincolnville and Rockport.
The concern was fiscal: Initial and preliminary estimates for consolidation are running as much as $1 million, with Rockport and Camden due to feel the worst of the pinch.
At the same time, Camden and Rockport are on the verge of hiring construction workers to build a $14.5 million school addition to RES West in Rockport, which, when finished, would house kindergarten through fourth grades. Currently, SAD 28 educates first and second grades at RES East in Rockport Village; third and fourth grades at RES West on Route 90; and grades five through eight at Camden-Rockport Middle School in Camden. Kindergarten is temporarily housed at CRMS.
SAD 28 anticipates opening bids at the end of October, with ground breaking to take place in November.
On Wednesday night, board members recollected that the discussion was prompted by other community members expressing concern at the governance committee meeting of the regional planning committee.
"It is an important and valid question," said Assistant Superintendent Mike Weatherwax, who is also the chairman of the Five Town Regional Planning Committee.
"My view would be that we continue," said Patterson, noting that the project planning has been under way for the past eight years, with millions already spent by local taxpayers. He said the timing is reasonable in the construction market to proceed, and inflation will only drive the cost up if the project is delayed.
"It will only get more expensive in the future," said board member Tori Manzi of Camden.
"We need it and we need the space," said Chairman Traci Dorr of Camden.
- DEP Permit for clearing was approved. Clearing commenced prior to the opening of the school year.
- MSAD #28 closed on the parcel of property formerly owned by Dr. Zanca on August 14, 2007.
- Test wells for the geothermal system were drilled on August 27.
- Bid Documents will be available September 24.
- Bids will be opened October 30.
- Contracts will be awarded on November 6. Groundbreaking will take place as soon as possible thereafter.