Mt. Ararat schools face costly repairs as district weighs replacements

Harpswell Community School could be replaced with a new building carrying a price tag of up to $20.1 million, a sign of how expensive it has become for SAD 75 to keep patching aging schools across Topsham, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and Harpswell.

The district’s long-range facilities plan has narrowed from 12 options to five, but the core problem has not changed: three of SAD 75’s five elementary schools are at least 70 years old. Williams-Cone School in Topsham, Harpswell Community School and Bowdoinham Community School have been identified as the district’s oldest elementary buildings, and district officials have said the choices now run from major repairs and renovations to consolidation or new construction.

Harriman Architects and Engineers has been helping the district assess the buildings, project future enrollment and demographics, and gather public and stakeholder input. The firm has said the remaining five options could cost between $81.2 million and $120.4 million, a range that underscores the stakes for taxpayers in a district where every large capital decision ripples through four towns. The district has also said it is no longer considering closing community schools in Bowdoin or Bowdoinham, keeping the debate focused on how to maintain a school in each community while dealing with buildings that are becoming more costly to operate.

Harpswell’s options carry special weight because Harpswell Community School is the town’s only public school. West Harpswell School closed in 2011, and Harpswell Coastal Academy later operated in the former West Harpswell School for 10 years before closing in 2023. Any replacement or site decision in Harpswell will shape not just the building itself but where children go every day, how far they ride the bus, and whether the town keeps a single neighborhood school in place or shifts more students elsewhere.

The district is already living with the consequences of deferred maintenance. In August 2024, Bowdoinham Community School partially closed part of its building after trace amounts of asbestos were found in the original 1950s section, even though air tests came back good and the district said the detected levels were extremely low. That episode made plain how much older school construction can force districts into disruptive repairs just to keep classrooms open.

SAD 75 voters have already backed school spending once before, approving a $9 million bond in June 2022 for Mt. Ararat Middle School improvements and paving projects across the district. Now the question is whether Topsham, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and Harpswell keep paying for patchwork fixes on 1950s-era buildings or commit to the higher upfront cost of replacements that could serve the district for decades.