BETHEL — The SAD 44 board Monday approved a loan of $1.3 million from Norway Savings Bank for a period of 20 years for energy conservation and air quality improvements at the Telstar Middle/High School complex.
Those funds, as well as $1.2 million in district reserve funds, will pay for the project slated to begin by the first of the year. Honeywell International Inc., of Westbrook, which is the company that designed and engineered the project, will also oversee its construction.
Superintendent David Murphy said the interest on the loan will come in at 0.35 percent once federal Qualified School Construction reimbursement comes through.
He said the district will pay about $65,000 a year on the loan beginning during the 2014 school budget. In about five years, the Telstar sewer and water project will be paid off.
The conservation and air quality project is expected to be completed by the beginning of the 2013-14 school year. Minor jobs will be done during the school year, while major components of the project will take place during school vacations and in the summer.
In a related matter, Murphy said the district submitted a low interest loan request from the Qualified School Construction program for up to $900,000 that would be used to install an alternative renewable fuel boiler.
The district will learn whether it qualifies for the loan sometime in January or February. If approved, the district would not borrow the funds without voter approval.
In other matters, Murphy said he placed a spending freeze on the purchase of non-essential supplies and other items because of a possible funding curtailment from the state.
He said he hasn’t heard anything new on the possibility yet, but was getting prepared if Gov. Paul LePage reduces school funding.
The board also approved placing the teaching principals at Crescent Park and Woodstock elementary schools on a step schedule. Currently, Woodstock and Andover elementary schools teaching Principal, Jolene Littlehale, and Crescent Park teaching Principal, Levi Brown, each receive a stipend of $10,100 for their administrative work. With a step schedule in place, Littlehale will receive $14,000 and Brown, $13,000. Murphy said the amount and responsibilities of administration call for more work than in the past.
Also on Monday, the board:
* hired longtime seventh-grade substitute teacher David McKechnie as the full-time, permanent mathematics teacher at Telstar Middle School. McKechnie has many years of teaching experience including several years at Asmara International School in Eritrea, Africa, and in Sanford, Maine.
* approved several policies that bring the district up-to-date with state requirements; one deals with concussions and other head injuries. Murphy said a committee comprising a school nurse, the athletic director, a building administrator and several others will be appointed later this week to oversee the implementation of the policy.
* granted adult and community education director Jeannie Waite a 1.75 percent salary increase.
* changed the starting time for regular board meetings to 6:30 p.m., beginning at the next meeting on Jan. 14.
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