JAY – A renovation project that would target local schools was discussed at Thursday’s board meeting in Regional School Unit 73, with the board proposing to utilize energy savings to reduce annual debt payments.
The $5,874,764 project would impact the Spruce Mountain elementary, middle and high schools on the Jay campus, the Spruce Mountain Primary School in Livermore and the district’s central office and bus garage. The project would replace boilers, retrofit lighting systems, repair roofs and generally improve the buildings’ envelopes to improve energy efficiency. A key improvement would include replacing the existing SMES boiler – equipment the board says may not pass inspection this year – and ensuring that each school had two boilers to supply heat.
Significantly more work would be done at SMES – representing $3 million of the total cost of the project – with improvements to the cafeteria/multi-purpose room, installing restrooms, new walk-in coolers and improving the kitchen, and expanding the secretary area near the front of the school. A vestibule would be created to partition the entryway from the rest of the school, allowing the office staff to better see visitors prior to providing access. Blocked off windows in the cafeteria would be reopened with energy efficient models, and there would be some facade improvements.
The bus garage and central office building would both see energy efficient lighting and building envelope improvements.
The renovation would improve the comfort of students in buildings that are too cold in the winter and too hot in the warmer months, board members said, as well as fix failing elements of the facilities, such as roofs, windows and boilers. A board Building & Grounds Committee has been meeting on the issue for more than 1.5 years and has rejected some proposals made by Siemens, the engineering firm that is overseeing the renovation, that the board members deemed unnecessary, such as air conditioning. They also looked at other options, such as closing SMES and moving students into existing buildings. There isn’t enough space for the district’s students for that to work, board members said.
RSU 73 intends to utilize performance contracting to help keep the annual debt service payments down. The contract would guarantee annual energy savings of $110,532, or $1.88 million over 17 years, and apply that money against the annual payments. The district would also make use of one-time funding through Efficiency Maine. That would result in annual district costs of $263,457, starting in the 2019-20 fiscal year and continuing for 17 years.
As part of next fiscal year’s budget, 2018-19, the district would pay $300,000 – that money, along with $251,500 in E-Maine incentives, would go toward offsetting the $3 million total project cost of the SMES improvements. State law sets a cap of $2.5 million for performance contracting.
All payments – both the incoming $300,000 and the eventual $263,000 annual payments – would be offset by the district retiring annual debt service payments made for the SMMS renovation. That last, $420,000 payment was made in the current fiscal year. Budgets would therefore include $120,000 in savings in the next fiscal year, 2018-19, and savings of $262,000 in ensuing years, as compared to the current fiscal year.
Seems like if that kind of money is to be spent that there should at least be air conditioning in the rooms the kids and teachers complain about the most. However it would have to be quiet enough to not distract the classes.
Thank you to the bulldog for a comprehensive article on the renovations plan. The local paper was lacking in key details.
Too bad this state can’t get behind solar panels. Perfect use for them right here.
In light of the recent events some of this should go towards “hardening” the schools.