POLAND — Last year, fixing the HVAC systems at Regional School Unit 16’s three elementary schools was estimated at about $5.1 million. About a year later, that number has grown more than 45% to $7.4 million. The reason?

Officials of the company hired by the school district to come up with a repair cost said the first number was a rushed “best educated estimate” in the face of a pending referendum on the issue last year.

Energy Management Consultants had not visited Elm Street School and Poland Community school before giving RSU 16 officials an estimate last year on how much it would cost to update the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in those buildings and in Minot Consolidated School.

At a workshop last November with the district’s school directors, Erik Rodstrom, a senior engineer with EMC, was asked about the $5.1 million bond issue put before voters earlier in the year to fix the issues and why the amount didn’t reflect an updated $7.4 million estimate from the company.

The $5.1 bond was defeated by a four-vote margin, 219 to 215, in a special election in the three towns of RSU 16 in May 2023.

Rodstrom responded, “Prior to the referendum it was kind of last minute. The school district wanted some budget costs for the other two schools besides Minot (Consolidated) — Poland Community School and Elm Street. We hadn’t really visited those schools. We told them that. We gave them our best educated estimate based on the little we knew.”

The issue arose when Minot Consolidated School’s boiler went down due to a cracked plate in September 2022. Then-Superintendent Ken Healey called Energy Management Consultants to come up with a temporary solution to the problem.

Realizing the other two elementary schools had serious heating and ventilation problems as well, Healey requested and got approval from the district directors in December 2022 to give Energy Management Consultants $25,000 to determine the cost to update the HVAC systems in all three elementary schools.

At the Feb. 13, 2023, school board meeting, Healey told directors $4.8 million would be needed to fix the systems.

“We are now in a crisis situation,” Healey said, warning that if something isn’t done, “a colossal collapse” of the Minot school heating system is possible.

Based on that estimate, RSU 16 directors approved a bond referendum for $5.1 million on March 2. About $1.8 million would be earmarked for the Minot Consolidated School, $1.7  million would go to the Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls and roughly $1.4 million would go to Poland Community School, plus 5% for contingency.

Almost since the day it was recommended, the $5.1 million bond was questioned to some degree or another. Some complained that the amount of interest on the bond over its 20-year life, totaling almost $3 million, was considerable. And some wondered if the amount was enough, and if the district would have to ask for more later.

RSU 16 Superintendent Todd Sanders said Thursday in an email that a more thorough examination of the repair costs began last summer when “Director of Operations (John) Hawley began questioning what the $4.8 million would actually cover. The additional time allowed for more thorough evaluation, which determined the scope of repairs to be more extensive. The new estimate (of $7.4 million) better reflects, with today’s dollar amounts, what it will cost to bring our three elementary schools to where they should be.”

Sanders wrote, “We can only speak to the numbers that we have received since we have been in the district. In conversations with Director of Operations Hawley, we feel confident the numbers that we have presented are accurate to complete the HVAC projects.”

On Monday, RSU 16 directors approved going with a master lease agreement not to exceed $10.2 million to fund the HVAC projects.

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