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Portland's beloved elementary school is a casualty in necessary consolidation.

August 30, 2007

— There's a lot to like about Nathan Clifford School. It is a historic building, centrally located in a walkable neighborhood.

It draws a socioeconomically diverse population of students who are top performers on standardized tests.

But those qualities aren't enough to make the century-old building fit in Portland's future. On Tuesday, a committee of six at-large city councilors and School Committee members rightly voted to recommend replacing the building with a new elementary school, to be constructed elsewhere in the city with state funds.

The city should take their advice. A new school would create the capacity to close another Portland elementary school besides Clifford, allowing the city to get better control of its school spending.

It's important to remember how Clifford got to the forefront of the school closure debate. The state Board of Education declared in 2005 that the poor condition of the building made it the state's top priority for construction funding.

The School Committee hired an architect with experience in saving historic structures who determined that it would cost $21 million to renovate the building as opposed to $18 million for a new structure. Even after renovation, the school would not meet state standards in several areas, including energy efficiency.

Supporters of Clifford rightly point out that the state's standards are developed for rural buildings and do not fully account for realities of urban life.

For instance, a neighborhood school's low transportation costs could be weighed against the higher cost of heating an old building. Clifford proponents say there could be relief from Augusta in the form of emergency legislation that would relax some of the standards for historic buildings.

These arguments miss the point, however. Years of declining enrollments and aging facilities have combined to reduce state aid to Portland schools and increase pressure on local taxpayers. Clifford is one school in a system that should be consolidated so the community's scarce financial resources can be spent wisely .

Portland is in no position to refuse an $18 million project from the state, or to hold a referendum to ask the city's tax-payers take on any more construction costs directly.

It's time to move forward and build a new school that will continue the work that the teachers and parents of Clifford students have done so well.