The South Portland City Council on Tuesday gave preliminary approval to three separate school bonds, totaling $16.3 million. If sent to the November ballot and approved by voters, they would provide safety upgrades at the city’s elementary schools, conduct maintenance at some schools, and revamp athletic facilities at the high school.

The $12.3 million bond for athletic facilities calls for a new concessions building, stadium field, practice field, track, stadium lights and a permanent restroom. The proposal calls for the use of synthetic turf. Currently, portable toilets are used at the stadium while the outdoor track is in rough shape and there are bare patches on the stadium field, posing a safety concerns for athletes, Superintendent Tim Matheney said at Monday’s council meeting.

“That field is not just used for football,” Matheney said. “That’s a soccer stadium, that’s a lacrosse stadium and it hosts many events throughout the school year.”

Matheney told the council that the district has been working on an athletic facilities plan since early 2023.

A $3 million bond would create secure vestibules at all five of South Portland’s elementary schools among other security measures. Upgrading the entrances to the elementary schools has been discussed by school officials and the school board since April 2023, Matheney said.

The vestibules would cost $2.7 million while $52,000 would go toward external lighting and $227,000 would go toward security cameras.

“We need far more sophisticated – and far more – security cameras in our elementary schools than we do now which, quite frankly, are significantly behind what you would find in elementary schools elsewhere in the United States,” Matheney told the council.

He noted the district applied for grant funding for the vestibules but was rejected in January.

Meanwhile, a $1 million bond would be for maintenance – nearly $936,000 of which would go toward roof work at Kaler, Skillin and Small elementary schools.

“It’s not the full roof at each school, but substantial portions of them,” Matheney said.

Roughly $33,000 of that bond order would go toward windows at Kaler to stop moisture seeping into the school and roughly $32,000 toward the high school’s auditorium pit area and the entrance to Beal Gymnasium.

“We believe the materials that were used for the (gym) entrance are really not exterior materials and that was an error when that part of the building was constructed,” Matheney said.

The school board approved the three bond orders on July 8. The council unanimously gave preliminary approval to them on Monday and will hold a public hearing and final vote on Aug. 6 to decide whether to send the bonds to a November referendum.

This story was edited July 19 to add that synthetic turf would be used for the new fields.