FARMINGTON — After three years of construction and nearly a dozen years of planning, the combined Mt. Blue High School and Foster Technology Center, and the Bjorn Auditorium were dedicated Thursday night.

“We really appreciate this school,” student Darby Sabin said as she and student Andrew Pratt led a  group on a tour of the campus.

Classrooms intermingle with automotive labs, school stores, a school bank, robotic classrooms and the large new auditorium. They are a small sample of what the school offers students.

“Without a doubt, this is the best school in the state of Maine,” robotics teacher Richard Wilde told the tour group while showing a new 3-D printer in his classroom.

Parents and the public toured the school before going to the Bjorn Auditorium where Superintendent Thomas Ward recognized people involved in the $65 million school renovation and construction project.

More than $600,000 was raised during a Legacy Campaign to pay for extras, he said.

One of those extras was restoration of a 107-year-old Steinway grand piano, which sat on the stage of Bjorn Auditorium, Carol Shumway, said. It’s like new, she said.

The cornerstone for Mt. Blue High School was set in 1968, Ward said. He named past superintendents, principals and outstanding teachers such as Richard Gould who taught 55 years. 

The list of individuals, companies, building and visioning committees who devoted many hours to the building project was long. Ward thanked the Richard Gould family for donations to the tennis courts, Franklin Savings Bank for the athletic concession stand, Kevin Vining and family for the competition turf and weight room, and the Richard Bjorn family for the major donation to the auditorium, which was dedicated to the family.

He remembered the community help from Randy Cousineau for classroom use at the Franklin Shoe site during construction, the University of Maine at Farmington for use of athletic fields and the use of Kemp field for sports during the campus reconstruction.

Ward said he told Mt. Blue students earlier Thursday that they didn’t have any idea of the stress, time and work that goes into a building project.

Applying for state aid to build a school is now a 12-year process, he said. He thanked the administration for their time spent on the application process for the Mallett School and the Mt. Blue campus at the same time.

Michael Cormier, who retired as RSU 9 superintendent in June, recited a quote from Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

When voters were asked to approve the construction project, it was the worst of times, Cormier said. The country was in an economic decline, but there was wonderful support, he said.

Now is the best of times, because with this school so many people have completed a promise to the children of today and the children of future generations, he said.

abryant@sunjournal.com