Jeff Mears is not just the principal of Young School in Saco — he’s also a resident and a parent, and long before he became principal he remembers his son was one of the first to attend the new school when it opened under assurances that the setup was only temporary.

That was in 2004, and now Mears is the administrator for what is essentially a complex of modular classroom buildings cobbled together, long overdue for a proper building for its nearly 300 students.

“They said it was a temporary thing, but how temporary?” he said.

This month, officials are taking a concrete step forward in ongoing plans to replace the K-2 building with help from the Maine Department of Education. Superintendent Jeremy Ray said committees appointed by the school board plan a public presentation at the end of January or early February to unveil a short list of possible locations and discuss what the school’s final configuration might look like.

Mears has been principal at Young School for a year, coming from an assistant principal position at Biddeford Primary School, where he spent the past three years. He said he already has a good working relationship with both the students and the staff.

“The building’s not good, but everything else is great,” he said.

A recent visit to Young School demonstrated the need for a new building. The school is really just three separate modular structures. To get to one building in the rear, which houses classroom space for second-graders, kids have to walk across an open area.

“When it’s cold out, it’s a pain,” Mears said.

Mears also said he doesn’t like having carpet in the classrooms, especially since COVID-19-related restrictions mean the kids have to eat lunch there.

“Having carpet in the classrooms makes me crazy, but I don’t want to rip it up because I don’t know what’s under there,” he said.

Mears said the classrooms are accommodating the students, but just barely, with the student population nearing its capacity of 300. That’s a concern, he said, as he lives around the corner from the school and can see families moving in throughout the area.

“If we’ve got more kids moving into these homes, we could be in trouble,” he said.

Mears said staff space is even tighter. 

Half of one outbuilding is dedicated to office space for five staff, including a math coach and school psychologist, along with reserve academic classroom space for special education — all crammed into a 16-foot by 20-foot space, with stand-up cubicle partitions and storage cabinets on casters offering the only division between office areas. The only part of the room with a door that closes is a glorified converted closet, now used for psychological testing. 

“It’s a disaster,” Mears said. 

Mears said the staff has been remarkably patient with the process, given how long some have worked in what was supposed to be a temporary setup.

“They make it work, and that says a lot about them,” he said.

Ray said the district had sought funding from the Maine Department of Education under its capital school construction project. Year after year, Young School waited on the list, and in November 2020 the department granted approval to fund the project. Local officials still have to iron out the details of what the new school will look like before even speculating on a dollar figure for the project, Ray said.

“We’re not even close to that,” he said.

Ray said the project initially was held up by the coronavirus pandemic, but began in earnest in June 2021. Right now, he said, there are about 20 different possible locations for the school, and by the time the committees are ready to present, he is hoping to have narrowed the field to six choices.

The other major decision, Ray said, is the school’s ultimate configuration. In addition to the K-2 programs at Young School, Saco also has the Gov. John Fairfield School and the C.K. Burns School, along with a pre-K program. Ray said a new project may also consider the needs of the city’s other schools.

Mears said he wouldn’t be surprised to see a new school building offering space to address more than just his students’ needs.

“I can’t imagine us getting a new school and (for example) Fairfield having nothing. That seems very unfair to me,” he said.

The upcoming public meeting, which hasn’t been scheduled yet, will address the configuration issue, and likely include a presentation of multiple final proposals, Ray said. In the meantime, Mears said, Young School is getting yet another modular classroom building that will provide enough space for four classrooms, but it’s still just a temporary solution. 

Mears said he looks forward to the day when the school will finally have a permanent home, or at least enough elbow room for everyone.

“To say space is an issue is an understatement,” he said.