The Turner-area school district board recently accepted a six-figure federal grant and agreed to spend thousands more to get a generator for the high school to ensure the school will remain open when power is out.

On Thursday, Maine School Administrative District 52 directors accepted a federal grant for $140,892.50 to pay for 75% of the generator for Leavitt Area High School. The board then voted to spend $56,168.05.

The initial cost for the generator was going to be $187,858, outlined in a grant the district submitted a year ago. Because of inflation, the district’s $56,168.05 share is about $9,000 more than anticipated at the time of the grant, Superintendent Cari Medd told the school board Thursday.

A bad storm in December 2023 with high winds knocked out power to the area and caused flooding and ice that ended up canceling school for three days,

The generator will give district schools, which include students from Greene and Leeds, a shelter to rely on in case power goes out.

Medd noted that when the power goes out, the schools cannot flush toilets. The district’s new wastewater treatment center has a back-up generator, but it runs just the facility and not the Central Office.

“This will fully electrify the high school,” she said.

“We at least now will have a shelter” to bring in children even if they need to bus them from the other schools in Turner, if needed, she said. The vast majority of the more than 2,000 students in the district attend schools in Turner.

School leaders will consider generators for other schools in the district, including those in Greene and Leeds, to make them more resilient, Medd said.