Southern Maine voters mull millions in school building projects on November ballot [Video]

GORHAM — Heather Perry has an uphill task. She’s the superintendent of the Gorham School District and she’s putting a set of school renovation bonds to voters this fall, even though she’s pretty confident they won’t pass.

In a town that approved its school budget by a razor-thin margin this year, and rejected it twice the year before, putting major construction projects out to voters is difficult, but it’s often the only course of action thanks to the state’s limited options for school construction.

“We’ve tried to access every other fund available before going to our local taxpayers to meet the needs of our buildings, and we’ve just exhausted those possibilities,” Perry said. “So the only route left is to go to your local taxpayers and request funds to support these much-needed building projects.”

Gorham is one of four school districts in southern Maine that have bonds on the Nov. 5 ballot to pay for …