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Work to begin next month at school site
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The outdoor track, soccer field, ice rink and the closed Pendleton
Street School will be demolished beginning next month to start work on
the new multimillion-dollar pre-kindergarten-through-eighth-grade
school, Superintendent Daniel Lee said Wednesday.
The State Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved phase
one of the $39.5 million construction project, which will occupy the
corner of Pendleton Street and Parkway South.
"Everything will be torn down," Lee said, estimating that the
demolition work will be complete in December.
Underground sewer and water lines and a retaining wall on the
southern part of the site will be installed at the same time. A
construction fence will surround the nearly 20-acre site.
Work on the new two-story, 156,000-square-foot elementary and middle
school will begin in the spring and is expected to be completed by
December 2010.
Since the soccer fields will be removed, this year’s Brewer High
School soccer games will be played on Doyle Field and at facilities on
Maple Street and Capri Street.
The outdoor ice rink will probably be relocated adjacent to the
Washington Street School, said Ken Hanscom, Brewer Parks and Recreation
director.
During their Monday meeting, the Brewer School Committee also decided
to double the capacity of the pre-kindergarten program, add breakfast to
the offerings at the high school and to increase meal prices slightly.
Breakfast will cost high school students $1.25. Elementary and middle
school students will pay 10 cents more for meals, an increase from $1.75
to $1.85 for kindergarten through fifth grade and an increase to $2.10
for sixth through eighth grades. High school students will pay 25 cents
more, with meal prices increasing to $2.25, Lee said.
The pre-kindergarten program, which is a partnership with Penquis,
last year operated as a four-day morning-only program with 17 students.
This fall that number will double and the students will be provided with
bus service, the superintendent said.
"We’re going to run an a.m. and p.m. program," Lee said. "We’ll be
doing that Monday through Friday."
Penquis’ partnership requires a portion of the program be set aside
for low-income residents. Three income-eligible slots remain open for
the pre-k program, Lee said. Those slots will be filled by others if no
low-income residents apply before school starts.
A copyright story
from the Bangor Daily News, Thursday, August 14, 2008. |
