Facing cost overruns, Portland scales back renovations on four public schools

Courtesy / Portland Public Schools Lyseth Elementary School in Portland is currently undergoing renovations, but they have been scaled back because of cost overruns.

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By Staff

Portland Public Schools, the 6,800-student school district in Maine’s most populous city, is scaling back a massive building renovation project because of expected cost overruns.

Funded with a $64 million bond approved by city voters in 2017, the district began construction last year at the first of four elementary schools slated for upgrades. But plans for the work on Lyseth Elementary School — originally to have included a new gym, a new library and improvements to the entrance and administrative space — have had to change.

Portland Public Schools had estimated that work would cost $17 million. But because of construction cost increases, the original scope of the renovation now has an estimated price tag of $23 million, according to a news release this week from the district.

The district said it has reduced the size of the project so the costs will “come close to the original amount.” The scaled-back work on Lyseth, which has over 500 students from kindergarten to grade five, is scheduled to be completed in 2021. The school, at 175 Auburn St. in the North Deering neighborhood, opened in 1958.

Now Portland faces a similar dilemma over renovating the three other campuses: Longfellow, Presumpscot and Reiche elementary schools.

Although construction cost increases were built into the initial projections for all four renovations, the actual costs in today’s economy far exceed them, the district said in the release. In fact, the work planned with the $64 million bond would now cost $105 million, according to Harriman, the Auburn-based architecture firm on the project.

More modest renovations, consistent with those being made at Lyseth, would cost a total of $85 million, according to Portland Public Schools.

The Portland school board is scheduled to discuss options for the future renovations at a workshop Feb. 25. The district’s Advisory Building Committee will also take up the matter at a meeting on Feb. 27.