At the November 12, 2024, School Board meeting, the board voted unanimously to authorize Superintendent Christopher Record to negotiate and sign a contract with Harriman architecture firm to design a revised "Middle Ground" project to address educational, structural, mechanical, safety and security, and site plan needs of Cape Elizabeth Middle School, Pond Cove Elementary School, and Cape Elizabeth High School.  The move comes in response to the November 5 election results where the $94.7 million bond referendum for a new middle school and renovations and repairs at the other two schools was narrowly defeated.  The bond referendum failed by approximately 166 votes; a significantly tighter margin than the last proposed school project referendum in 2022.

Superintendent Record said he is looking forward to getting back to work to figure out a solution.  "It was a very close vote and I took that as a positive.”  He added, “I will still advocate for little to no student disruption. I still believe, as the superintendent, that we need a new middle school.  Going forward, I am thinking about how do we reduce the costs without impacting the educational programming."  In addition, to consider the implications of the recently released New England School Development Council (NESDEC) report which projects a decrease of ten students across the district in 2034-2035 school year.

The board was unified in their support of moving forward with Harriman.  Harriman has become a, “Public figure that the community trusts and recognizes. Going back to the drawing board would be a bad use of taxpayer dollars,” Board member Caitlin Sweet said.  Board member Philip Saucier added, “Harriman has been an excellent consulting/architecture firm.  They have all the resources and have built upon what Colby Co. did [for the 2022 proposal], and I think that they can continue to refine this in light of what we have learned.”

In response to the NESDEC report, outgoing Board member Heather Altenburg said, “Enrollment fluctuates.  If you take away ten students from the district, it doesn’t mean that you take away a classroom or take away from one program; it means maybe 2 or 3 members [students],” from one class or another.  She agrees that the report should be looked at, “But, it’s not apples to apples when you talk about enrollment going down and when you talk about the size of a new building.”  Outgoing Chair Elizabeth Scifres concurred and said, “It’s about the needs.  The needs have not changed.”