As a soon to be senior at Boothbay Region High School, a big topic in our community over the last two years has been the new school plan to build a new one or repair the existing one. There are many different opinions on if, when, and where we should build the new school. In my opinion, we should build a new school in Boothbay Harbor instead of repairing the old one, which would cost 30 million dollars to get the building up to code for the next 25 to 30 years. I still believe building a new school would be good because it would stay up to code for longer than 30 years, it would potentially bring in more families and students, and it would involve a long-period loan which would likely not "break the bank" for any taxpayers on a yearly basis.

I realize that the cost of building a new school is a lot of money, and we have to figure out where to place kids during the time it's being built, but our current school is old, outdated,and due for repairs. 

I have spoken with two school officials who say that a likely building plan is to put a new high school building behind the current BRES building. This idea appeals to me because as an athlete I'm excited by the fact there would be a new weight room and basketball facility in the new high school. But with a falling school population, I am also concerned that spending all this money would be for nothing.

However, in my judgment, building a new school might bring in new students and families. They may see our amazing sports facilities and want to come here to try their hand at sports at BRHS. Our current sports fields are old and weren't put in the best of spots as the football field was put in at the bottom of a hill, and our baseball and football fields overlap. Everything is cramped in one spot and because the field doesn't have the proper drainage, if it rains once, we can't practice or play on the fields for at least two days. 

I understand that if we did upgrade the sports fields and facilities it would add a lot more with the estimated cost already being 89 to 100 million dollars. (AOS98 School Boards - CSD Building Exploratory Project) to the price of this new school, which would raise taxes for the people of the town even more. If adding this upgrade attracts more kids and families to our school, tuition and tax revenue may increase.

The current mill rate for Boothbay Harbor is 8.5 mills (Jane Carpenter's Register article "Boothbay Harbor Tax Hike"), which is $8.50 for every thousand dollars of assessed value. For the purposes of argument, if the mill rate jumps to 9.0 from 8.5 on a $250,000 dollar home the property tax would go from $2,125 dollars to $2,250; if it went from 8.5 to 9.5 they would pay $2,375; this increase would be, rounding up, $21 dollars a month on such a property owner in Boothbay Harbor.

I acknowledge that we don't know how much the mill rate will increase due to building a new school, but the figures I included begin to illustrate the impact of the mill rate increasing.

I ask my readers to consider the benefits of building a new school.