Tree losses on the cross-country trails behind Boothbay Region Elementary School in the Oct. 30 windstorm will bring heat to area residents via Boothbay Region Community Resource Council’s Woodchucks program. Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor Community School District Facilities and Transportation Director Dave Benner reported to district trustees Dec. 6, the hardwood will be donated to the program and branches and remnants will be chipped and returned to the soil.

“We spent a couple days up there and we’ll need to spend a couple more,” Benner said.

The new scoreboard, equipped with LED lights and wireless control, is up and running, said Benner. The project cost about $8,500, but $3,500 in grants and an anonymous donation covered a large chunk of that.

Proposed projects for fiscal year 2018-19 were noted: Replacing the carpet of the Boothbay Region High School library and library hallway, $20,000; painting the trim of all the schools’ outbuildings, $2,000; replacing the railings of the observation tower on Sherman Field, $5,000; replacing the sound system components on the observation tower, $1,200; adding an emergency light in the BRES stairwell between the entrance and the gym, $800; replacing the portable sound system at BRES, $3,500; installing a new window and door blinds in the grades three and four, and grades five and six, classrooms at BRES, $2,500.

The trustees will also need to decide to either raise the funds for upgrades to the area between Sherman Field and Perkins Field or to secure a loan for the work.

Superintendent Eileen King said the program bringing Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12 Westport Island and Alna students from grades seven through 12 to the BRES and BRHS schools is soon going to time out. The program allows for any students choosing to attend the Boothbay Region schools to do so with a tuition fee exchanged between towns.

“That was a one-year agreement,” said King. “We just wanted to test-drive it to see how it worked and it’s been working well.”

The three motions of the evening involved renewing the tuition agreements between Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor CSD and SVRSU 12 as well as agreements with Southport School Committee and Edgecomb School Committee. The agreements will be for five years, from 2018 to 2023.

“These allow choice for those schools, but also protect those students from not having a school to go to,” said King. “… We’re getting more and more requests from students to look at coming to the Boothbay Region High School especially for the STEM program.

The board voted unanimously in favor of all three motions.

In the School Committee meeting the same night, Kristin Gray, grades seven and eight social studies teacher, discussed a Washington, D.C. trip this year’s seventh graders will take in May 2019. The five-day trip would consist of visits to memorials, monuments, museums and Civil War battlefields including Gettysburg, possibly as a ghost tour of it at night.

“When you talk about these things without a visual or without being able to be there, kids miss how significant it is, so this actually puts them in the history,” said Gray.

The students will view the World War II and Vietnam memorials at night, tour the Library of Congress, and possibly two Smithsonian Museums.

Since the Smithsonian Museums’ tours can be customized depending on the school curriculum, Gray said current interests include the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History museum.

Gray is exploring the possibility of bringing students to the United States Botanic Garden.

There are currently 22 students signed up for the trip which is estimated to cost $1,062 per student, but as more students sign up, the cost will go down. Some students have already raised enough money to cover half of the costs to go on the trip, but Gray said donations are welcomed. Checks can be made out to “Boothbay Region Elementary School” and donors can specify the general fund for the trip or a specific student.

Students will be at the Festival of Lights as the welcome committee for the shuttle service Sunday, Dec. 10.

BRHS senior Lilly Sherburne shared her student report. She said 19 students applied to colleges and universities for early decision and that 50 percent of applicants have applied for Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).

“But we would like to get that to 100 percent,” said Sherburne.

BRES Principal Mark Tess announced that on Tuesday, Dec. 12 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. there will be a Family Night Reading Lab in which about 30 students and their families have been invited to participate.

“We were able to, through Title 1 funding, purchase books so we can send them home with families (to promote) early literacy for our children,” said Tess.

Winter Chorus Concert will be held at the Boothbay Harbor Congregational Church on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m.

Vice Principal Tricia Campbell also announced that students have achieved over 460 Spirit Cards as part of BRES’s month-long “Be the Light” campaign. The movement allows teachers and staff to catch students in kind and thoughtful behavior via a Spirit Card delivered to the main office. The “office elves” then put up a paper candle which signifies that act of kindness.

Said Campbell, “The goal is to light up the school … The kids are very excited.”

The board of trustees meets next on Wednesday, Jan. 3 at 5:15 p.m.