By Barbara Lance Lauze,Special to the Sun Journal

MECHANIC FALLS – Members of the town’s School Committee agreed Tuesday to meet with the school’s transportation employees to discuss their concerns about salaries, sick days and insurance.

Chairman Terri Arsenault and committee member David Griffiths said they were interested in being at the joint meeting.

Problems with the heaters in the 5-year-old Elm Street School also came to the attention of the committee. A spokesman from the custodial department said he has to do work on at least one of the 11 heaters every day. The cost of a new monitor heater is $889, the committee was told.

Rather than replacing all of the monitors, it was noted, it might be more feasible to add a boiler system or move an existing one and incorporate baseboard heat. The committee requested price quotes for each of the proposed solutions.

The committee voted to proceed with replacing the school’s solar roof. A total of $24,500 is needed, all of which is available in the existing budget.

A discussion of the school lunch program brought this comment from Director of Operations Gordon Murray: “School lunch programs aren’t meant to survive by themselves (without state assistance).” The Mechanic Falls program has evidently been surviving pretty much on its own.

Principal Mary Martin pointed out that the average cost of school lunch meals statewide is $3, while the average cost of the Mechanic Falls program is only $2. Arsenault pointed out that another benefit of the program is that parents can join their children for meals as long as they pay for the cost.

One of the ways in which the state helps reduce the cost of school lunches is by offering discounts on commodities, it was pointed out. But the items offered, it was noted, of late have not been very useful. Principal Martin acknowledged that the state seemed to have large quantities of lard available, but not much hamburger meat.

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