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With one year left to complete its One Campus project, Maine School Administrative District 51 has been hard at work in Cumberland this summer renovating, building and paving.

The project, driven by increased enrollment and approved by voters in 2024 for $53.5 million, includes the construction of a new pre-K to first grade building, the expansion of the current elementary school and road reconfiguration. Other One Campus components, such as the installation of a new turf field for the high school and construction of a new maintenance building, were completed last year.

“We’re starting to see the results of all this, several years of work and design and planning. It’s great to see things getting done,” said Superintendent Jeff Porter.

As Cumberland and North Yarmouth students and staff return to campus to start the school year, here’s what they’ll see when they arrive— and what to expect in the year ahead.

Campus visitors can now see the district’s new pre-K through grade 1 school, the Carolyn F. Small School — or at least better picture its general shape.

The building, which broke ground in June 2025 and is set to open in August 2027, is halfway through construction, said Porter. The exterior sheathing is mostly complete and the interior framing is almost done. Roofing will begin soon, and contractors plan on making the structure weathertight in the next month so work on the interior can continue over the winter.

“It’s really starting to look like a school from the outside,” said Porter. “I think people were kind of surprised when they came back and saw how much progress had been done over the summer.”

The Small School will be the focus of construction on campus this school year, said Porter. It is expected to be completed in June, leaving the summer for district staff to clean and prepare the building for students next fall.

The addition for the Mabel I. Wilson School in Cumberland, which was built this summer. It has four new classrooms. (Courtesy of MSAD 51)

The Mabel I. Wilson School currently houses pre-K through third grade, but will switch to grades 2-4 after the grade reconfiguration at the start of the 2027-28 school year.

Over the summer, the One Campus addition to the school was built, which includes new classrooms as well as additional small group rooms.

The building’s roof, which Porter described as in “dire shape” and “leaking all over the place,” was also fully replaced this summer. 

Following the removal of the modular classrooms from the Mabel I. Wilson School, work will be done on the grounds to enhance that outdoor space, including bringing back a field for the middle school and making space for a playground.

Campus Drive, the road that winds through the MSAD 51 campus, was reconfigured and paved between Main Street and the track to make space for a new bus loop and the entrance to the Small School.

As a result of the road shifting, the number of parking spots on the Greely Center for the Arts side of Greely High School has been reduced. More parking was added on the other side of the building a year ago in anticipation of this decrease.

As part of the One Campus project and more people on the school grounds, the Maine Department of Transportation required the district to contribute to off-site traffic management projects, which are largely overseen by the town. This summer, a sidewalk was added to Tuttle Road, new crosswalks and flashing lights were added to Tuttle Road and Main Street, and a four-way crossing was built on Middle Road.

The roadways of campus will have fewer construction vehicles and equipment starting this fall as contractors will no longer have to use Campus Drive and can now mostly take a designated construction route.

“We’ll have less disruption this school year than we did last year when all the concrete trucks were coming and going all the time,” said Porter.