Governor Janet Mills on Friday signed an Executive Order establishing a commission to conduct a comprehensive review of school construction and renovation financing in Maine.
The state said it has dedicated $580 million for school construction and renovation since 2019, but construction and renovation needs continue to outpace available funding.
Steve Bailey, Executive Director of the Maine School Boards Association, said during the last funding cycle only 9 new school construction projects were approved out of 74 applicants.
"For the most part, 6 to 9 schools per building cycle are approved. It takes 5 to 9 years to complete each cycle so very few schools are able to be built in any single funding cycle," Bailey said.
Maine School Boards Association data shows more than 500 schools in Maine were built prior to the 1990s, with nearly half built prior to the 1960s.
Bailey said those schools were not built with project-based learning, technology, and security concerns in mind.
The Commission will also explore school funding mechanisms in other states that could provide new options for financing school construction projects.
Massachusetts increased its sales tax by one penny to create a school building fund.
"There are a couple of reasons why that helps," Bailey said. "That money is put into a fund and so schools can be paid for right from the get-go instead of going through the bond bank. And there's no interest involved."
The Commission will report back to the Governor and the Legislature next year.
The State says the last such review was completed in 1997.
