Wiscasset residents will consider funding a $100,000 lab for Wiscasset High School. The lab, and an extra $32,000 toward a Wiscasset Middle School playground makeover, will each go to voters as spending items separate from the proposed $8.4 million budget for the next school year, Interim Superintendent of Schools Lyford Beverage said April 30.

The school committee decided April 29 to put both questions before voters; however, moments after those decisions, it became unclear whether it could happen. Residents’ questions and comments about the budget process led Beverage to say that he would check to see if the School Committee could go through with its plans.

On April 30, Beverage confirmed with an attorney that both questions can go on the warrant for the May 27, special town meeting on the school budget. He planned to submit the warrant to Town Clerk Christine Wolfe on May 4.

“Essentially, the community will be afforded the opportunity to approve each (of the two questions) individually, outside of the adopted operating budget for 2015-2016,” Beverage writes in an email response to the Wiscasset Newspaper. “If approved, the sums will then be carried into the total school budget.”

Residents will vote on the school budget at the polls on June 9.

Wrapping up budget talks in the high school library April 29, the school committee voted to propose the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) lab as a separate item from the proposed budget. Committee Chairman Steve Smith said he would like to give residents the opportunity to reinvest part of the savings over what the town spent on education for the current school year.

“I think the STEM lab is super important to the future jobs of our kids,” Smith said. But he didn’t think it would be fair for the committee to decide that the lab should go in the budget, he said in explaining his support of a separate question.

The committee also agreed to a $32,000 spending question for improvements to the middle school playground, beyond the $32,000 in the budget proposal. Vice Chairman Glen Craig favored more funding, to get the playground option which Kim Andersson of the playground committee said would be “the dream.” That option, projected at $65,692, would get a protective surface under all playground equipment.

Andersson said wood chips or rubber chips would cost less but that she would not recommend them, because children might throw them or try to eat them; the rubber ones would also risk contaminating the Sheepscot River behind the school, she said.

The costlier playground option and the $32,000 alternative the committee agreed to propose funding both get a climber with three slides and stairs compliant with the American with Disabilities Act; a protective surface under the climber; and would take out an existing dome, rocket ship climber and the swing set nearest the building, according to Andersson.

The vote to add the question to fund another $32,000 ran 4-1 with Smith opposed. He had suggested that the added elements in the costlier option be a second phase of the project, to consider for the following year.

The proposed 2015-2016 budget offer is down about $1 million from the current year’s budget. According to preliminary figures, it would take about $5.5 million in local property taxes, Smith said.

The committee made plans to tap carryover funds for $150,000  to cover costs that maintenance and transportation director John Merry is anticipating for the transition from three schools to two. About $62,000 of that is for paving; the rest, for moving costs, making the alternative education building into the superintendent’s office and, at the middle school, carpet replacement, mold removal, possible plumbing and electrical work and possible asbestos abatement, Merry said.

Plans call for the alternative education program to move to the high school.

Merry later told reporters that extensive asbestos abatement has been done at the middle school in the past; a contractor, Midcoast Environmental, would be at the school on May 5 to check on some debris on the dirt floor of one utility space, in case it has asbestos, he said. If so, that would probably be the only asbestos to take out, Merry said.

A representative from Servpro was at the school earlier April 29 to look at areas another contractor identified as having mold to remove, Merry said. He was awaiting Servpro’s estimate for the cleanup.

Regarding the paving plans, Merry told the school committee that the middle school portion of the work would likely include a new coat for the front parking lot and, behind the building, fixing of cracks and ruts; some ruts are four inches wide, he said.

“It’s just atrocious. Not even safe to walk on.”

The school will also need more parking with the addition of the primary grades, Merry said. “We’re still discussing it, but we’re talking about possibly putting 24 parking spots on the basketball court.”

The court will be missed, resident Judy Flanagan said. Committee members said a basketball hoop on a weighted stand might be able to be added to the playground.

At the high school, Merry said he is looking at replacing sidewalks, and replacing the curb in front of the steps with a gentle slope. The slope would be better for snow removal and better for students and staff than having to step onto the curb, he said.