The Boothbay-Boothbay Harbor CSD Board of Trustees on Nov. 7 made a list of upgrades that could cost millions of dollars. Besides prioritizing items from one to three, one highest, the board sought to project completion dates.

The projects come from two reports – one from Honeywell for HVAC projects and one from Lewis and Malm for general upgrades. Honeywell has given rough estimates on all the HVAC projects, but the costs for the general upgrades Lewis and Malm cited are unknown and finding out would cost the CSD $60,000.

“The clock's ticking and we've got to start getting our arms around this for moving forward,” said Superintendent Keith Laser. “What do you think is going to be the comfort level about how much you want to spend every year on these repairs? One million? Two million? Three million? You're talking about doing this for the next 20 years … The district is already at a $10 million budget this year and that works out to a cost per pupil of over $20,000 right now and that number, unless some significant changes are made, is going to go up. It's going to go up every year and as enrollment drops, unless there's some big cuts, it's going to be hard to get that number down.”

Trustees stressed the priority list is a rough and early try at organizing the issues. For example, lighting upgrades would cost an estimated $192,000 for Boothbay Region Elementary School and $252,000 for Boothbay Region High School; they were listed as lower priorities with a completion date of summer 2024. Building envelope upgrades for BRHS got a two, and a projected three years to complete. The same upgrades for BRES got a one, projected completion in summer 2020. Ventilation cleaning and a new emergency generator for BRES are both ones and have been slated for as soon as summer or winter 2019.

Laser said he recently asked the state how much it would cost to build a school to accommodate the current enrollment of 448. He said the going rate today is about $400 per square foot, and there must be 250 square feet per student, so that would put a new school just over $44 million. Laser said the cost would go up about five percent every year and, figuring in all factors, it would cost $4 million per year for 20 years.

“Or, you're going to put two and three and four and whatever it is every year to keep what you have now which is 180,000 square feet for 450 kids," Laser said.

Trustee Kevin Anthony said it would be much cheaper to refurbish the schools because population is going down. “If our population is going up, then we're thinking about building schools, but we don't have that problem.”

Updates

Facilities and Transportation Director Dave Benner said there are now over 100 exterior and interior cameras besides those on the buses. This allows a range in the field of vision around the schools and helps teachers and staff quickly respond to incidents. On Nov. 7, staff resolved three incidents by viewing surveillance footage, so the upgrades have made a difference to safety and security, Benner said.

A concerned parent brought it to Security Director Kyle Canada's attention that students have been crossing the road up toward Rite Aid and Irving and another crosswalk might make sense.

Benner said a grant was used about four years ago to put in the crosswalk to the YMCA. The lights for it cost upwards of $10,000. At the time, he asked the Maine Department of Transportation about a third crosswalk. He said the answer was an emphatic “no,” because crosswalks must be at least 400 feet apart.

However, Benner said he and Canada will soon speak with MDOT again to see if it might reconsider. Benner remarked, the distance they are looking at will still be about 380 feet from the nearest crosswalk.

“We're kind of hoping maybe they can wrap that into a safety piece and maybe not cost us anything. If not, we are looking for grants.”