Educators with Regional School Unit 16 are trying to cope with heating woes at its three elementary schools, especially at Minot Consolidated School.
“We are now in a crisis situation,” Superintendent Kenneth Healey said during a recent webinar on the problems.
Officials said it will likely cost more than $5 million to address the issues. Replacing the aging boiler at the Minot school alone will require spending $2 million, they said, and ought to be done this summer.
Last fall, a piece of the single, cast-iron boiler at the Minot school failed. Getting a new part to fix it took 20 weeks, said Tom Seekins, president of Emergency Management Consultants, a consultant that’s been working on the issue for a couple of months.
While educators waited to repair the boiler, a costly, temporary one had to be brought in, officials said.
Denise McKew, an interventionist at the Minot school, said the heating system is a problem even when it works.
Last year, she said, she was in a kindergarten room that had “absolutely no heat” so students wore jackets and mittens.
On another extreme, McKew said the book room where she works this year is “like a sauna” that leaves students so groggy that learning is difficult.
Karen Fuller, another Minot teacher, said the heating fluctuations lead to “a lot of lost education time.”
Healey said that each of the district’s elementary schools, which also include Poland Community School and Elm Street School, need major work on their heating and ventilation systems.
“All three of these buildings have limped along for years now,” Mary Wallace, a district nurse, said.
Officials said they can’t long delay doing the work at each of the elementary schools.
“If we want to keep our three small community schools, we need to get this accomplished,” Healey told the RSU school board this month.
Minot school, though, presents the most serious challenge.
He said it has already cost “an enormous amount of money” to cope with the boiler’s failure in the fall and there’s always a chance a similar problem could arise again. Parts are simply not available if something breaks, Healey said.
Seekins said it is clearly “on its last legs.”
Healey warned that if something isn’t done, “a colossal collapse” of the Minot school heating system is possible.
Emergency Management Consultants said in a report on the three schools’ heating issues that the Minot school should install a steam-to-hot water heating plant with two gas-fired condensing boilers” this summer to avoid a potentially dire situation. It would also include a new ventilation system.
One problem, though, is that RSU 16 doesn’t have the money allocated for the unexpected project.
Administrators are eyeing a spring bond referendum to win approval for the work from voters in Minot, Mechanic Falls and Poland.
Healey said a decision on whether to move forward with a referendum needs to be made at the March board meeting.
Another webinar on the issue is slated for 6 p.m. Tuesday. It will be held regardless of whether Tuesday’s storm delays or cancels school. The Zoom link can be found at rsu16.org.
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