BELFAST — It was a momentous day at Belfast Area High School Aug. 26, where supporters gathered to mark the substantial completion of major renovations at the school. 

While the ribbon itself was small, spanning roughly two feet, its cutting represented an end to a year-long process to make updates to the school. 

The ceremony was led by RSU 71 Superintendent of Schools Mary Alice McLean, who spoke briefly to the crowd about the $7.6 million project, which includes a new math wing and special education wing, updated cafeteria, and kitchen, among many other updates.

Belfast Area High School educates students from Belfast, Belmont, Morrill, Searsmont, and Swanville.

The main office of the school is now in the special education wing, along with adult education. The canopy rising above the entrance to the school has also been updated, in addition to the lobby, restrooms, entrance, locker rooms, and home economics room. 

McLean said that when she began with RSU 71 as principal in 2016, the course of the project was still being finalized and comprised substantial renovations.  

A feeling of lightness permeated the new and updated areas of the school, including large windows featured in the school’s classrooms, illuminating pristine floors and a purposefully exposed ceiling, where pipes and supporting structures can be seen. 

According to teachers at the school, staff and faculty came together to make decisions about what they all hoped would come from the renovations and what the best version of those updates would be. 

Many of the classrooms already feel homey, which is perhaps unsurprising since some of the school’s updates were completed last year before the end of school.

The established rooms were decorated with the passions of the teacher who calls it home, with some choosing New England sports teams, and others going for the college team where their child attends school. 

Other areas of the school are still working their way toward settled, with boxes and miscellaneous items still in the special education wing of the school.

The school was open to the public to explore the new areas, with tours also given. 

“I hope that you’ll walk through and take a look at the new and renovated spaces in the high school but first I’d like to thank a good many people,” said McLean. “First I’d like to take the community for supporting the work of this very important transformation of our flagship school, the school to which all of our children, from the towns of Morrill, Swanville, Belmont, Searsmont, and from the city of Belfast come to learn and to grow.”

The many groups, organizations, businesses, and individuals involved in some way with the project were also thanked during McLean’s speech. Some of those thanked included the residents of the towns that attend the school, community partners, voters, families, city councilors, and the school board, both current and former. 

“Being a school board member is a lot of work, it's very time-consuming, and is sometimes thankless,” she said. “We are very lucky indeed to have such stellar leadership in the first few years of the still relatively young RSU 71. Many and heartfelt thanks go to school board members past and present.”

One of the many honored included Dr. Paul D. Knowles, of whom McLean said: “I’d like to heartily thank the first to see the new RSU 71 underway. He worked very hard to get the project planned and to launch our district, and he’s owed a debt of gratitude today.”

The final thanks went to those perhaps most disrupted by the years of construction: the students and staff.  

“Getting to the point of achieving such grand plans can be a gargantuan distraction to the business of teaching and learning. It can be noisy and dusty and on the way to being beautiful everything can look pretty dreary and dismal, and feel like it’s never going to actually be done. Many thanks to the entire faculty and staff at the high school.”

McLean drew special attention to the math department, who had to roll their classroom materials from room to room on a cart for much of the multi-year event. 

Math teacher Diana Leighton, who is in her 40th year at the school, said she loves the changes that have been made to the school. 

“I love [the changes/additions], they’re beautiful,” she said.  “The math wing is a part of that and the whole special education wing is beautiful, too, the rooms are just so fresh and clean and roomy and it’s so pleasant up there. I love it.”

Leighton said the almost two years spent moving from classroom to classroom with the aid of a cart was challenging. 

“We have carts to put our stuff on and we would travel from room to room. So that was a little bit of a challenge, but not as bad as I thought it would be,” she said. 

With the Sept. 3 start of the RSU 71 school year just around the corner, Leighton is looking forward to a quieter year, and of course, to welcome back her students. 

“[I’m]  always excited to see the kids.”

Erica Thoms can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com