MINOT – Plans for the modular classroom addition to the Minot Consolidated School are moving quickly, Assistant Superintendent Marc Gendron told the School Committee Tuesday night.
“We’d like to begin the site work in a couple of weeks,” he said.
Gendron said that on Monday he, with Union 29 Director of Operations Gordon Murray and Road Manager Arlan Saunders, met with representatives of Schiavi Leasing Corp. The meeting concluded, he said, with Schiavi’s representatives seeking to move the project ahead immediately rather than waiting until July 1 when funds for it officially become available.
Voters at the March 4 town meeting approved a budget for the 2006-2007 school year, beginning July 1, that includes about $94,000 for the leased modular addition – $60,000 which is earmarked for its setup.
Schiavi representatives indicated that they would wait until July for payment but would like to begin work now.
Asked whether the 28- by 68-foot classroom should be placed on a concrete or an asphalt pad, the committee told Gendron to go with a concrete pad because that is how the project was presented at town meeting.
The modular addition will set about 30 feet directly behind the gymnasium, which Gendron said is ideally suited for water and sewer connections.
Principal Margaret Pitts said it appears the addition will likely house the fourth grade, a move that will free two classrooms in the main school building for use as a second kindergarten class, if needed, and for special education.
In other business, the committee elected Lisa Sabatine and Steve Holbrook as chairman and vice chairman, respectively, for the coming year. Karen M. Whalen will continue to serve as its liaison to the Poland Regional High School committee.
The School Committee also approved the 2006-2007 school calendar which, for the first time, will be the same in Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland.
School Superintendent Nina Schlikin reported that, based on Maine Learning Results Performance Standards, the Minot school has been recognized as an improving school for math at grade four.
Adding to her principal’s report, Pitts noted that flu has raised the absentee rate to about 50 students per day and that each day she has had to call parents of upward of 10 students to have them taken home.
Comments are no longer available on this story