POLAND — Regional School Unit 16 directors Monday approved spending $17,500 for AEI Consultants of Jersey City, New Jersey, to assess all the district’s facilities and provide a report.
The purpose is “to observe and document deferred maintenance and anticipated capital expenditures necessary to maintain property in good operating condition over a period of 10 years,” the company wrote in an email.
An evaluation of the school buildings was suggested by the school board’s Futures Task Force, which was formed this past spring in light of the boiler breakdown at Minot Consolidated School.
When the aging conditions of the heating and ventilation systems at Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls and Poland Community School were brought to the board’s attention, an attempt to pass a $5 million bond to update the systems failed in a districtwide referendum.
The task force was formed to target major issues impacting the educational quality in the district, including building needs, student safety, staffing needs, class sizes, special needs and transportation.
The task force will submit a report with its recommendations to the board in September.
Poland Regional High School teacher D’Arcy Robinson showed a video of the conditions of the three elementary schools, both inside and outside, to board of directors at the outset of Monday’s meeting.
John Hawley, recently appointed director of facility operations for RSU 16, told the board an assessment report was done in 2011 but was never followed until 2016. He showed a bar graph depicting capital improvements spending analysis for the district from the 2016 school year to the present. It showed that over eight years $10 million had been requested for capital improvements, only $3.2 million was budgeted and only $1.7 million had been spent.
A cost analysis on fixing all district buildings was released by Assistant Superintendent Amy Hediger in an Aug. 1 email. The total, including proposed heating costs, is $15.48 million. The specific amounts are:
• Elm Street School, $3.35 million, not including heating.
• Minot Consolidated School, $1.83 million, not including heating.
• Poland Community School, $3.15 million, not including heating.
• Whittier Middle School/Poland Regional High School, $1.9 million.
• Central Office, $246,750.
• Proposed heating cost, $5 million.
Total: $15.48 million.
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