CSD trustees talk BRES renovation, furniture budget
Aug. 17, the Community School District (CSD) continued its review of Boothbay Region Elementary School's (BRES) $30 million renovation project. Due to the lawsuit, labor and materials costs have increased and the project scope is being edited as necessary.
In a meeting with Lavallee Brensinger Principal Architect Lance Whitehead, trustees decided to install security film on the windows of the entire first floor. They also decided to use nitrogen instead of compressed air inside the school's dry fire sprinklers, reducing corrosion and promoting system longevity.
Trustees are maintaining kitchen flooring finish replacement as part of the scope. The quarry tile will be removed and replaced with epoxy. As for heat preservation (backup heat) in the case of a power outage, the school's existing generator will take on that load, offloading noncritical systems to accommodate. This means heat and safety lighting will be maintained, but classroom electrical plugs won’t be operational. This option costs $69,750. The other two choices, which involved buying another generator, were both over $300,000.
In the past 25 years, Director of Facilities David Benner said the power has gone off, on average, three to five times a year.
Discussion turned to the $330,000 furniture budget, which is sufficient for phase 1 (main office, library and six classrooms in the middle school wing) and phase 2 (cafeteria, music room and makerspace). However, this does not leave funds for the art room, which costs about $20,000 on average. Existing furniture will be carried over for now. Trustees discussed fundraising to close the gap.
In a post-meeting interview, Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98 Superintendent Robert Kahler said the school will be exploring donated pieces to cut furniture costs as well.
As for the playground, the area has been split into two sectors. The upper playground is for ages 5 to 12, costing $131,169; the lower for pre-K to 2, costing $165,831. The upper is a priority as the area will be disturbed by construction, and liability on the existing equipment does not cover reinstallation. A playground committee is being formed to explore scope and help push designs and fundraising efforts forward.
In other business, Benner said he's received a $17,775 bid from Hahnel Bros. Inc to repair the roof/sidewall water leak at the high school. A $6,328 bid from A. M. Construction & Roofing was received for work on Sherman Field's restrooms, dugouts and storage building. Due to safety concerns, a cluster of oak trees next to the baseball field's first base was removed.
