A new phone system would improve safety in Wiscasset’s schools, Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said. She’s doing the research now, with plans to pursue it as a future budget item, Wilmot said.

She first raised the replacement idea a year ago but it did not make it into the 2016-2017 budget voters passed last spring. Some School Committee members in November 2015 had voiced concern about putting money into facilities when keeping programs intact was going to take a budget increase. On Sept. 22, Wilmot brought up the phone system again.

It’s antiquated, she told the committee. “We want to keep kids safe and we want communication to be efficient. But right now we’re operating almost like switchboard communication.”

Responding to questions by email, Wilmot said she will again be seeking the community’s perspective. Respondents to her budget survey last year rated the topic of communications systems “moderately important,” Wilmot noted.

Most classrooms at the two schools do not have phones, and the phones cannot transfer calls, the superintendent said. “To communicate within the school buildings, the staff have to rely on the intercom system through the main office (which) becomes the ‘go-between’ for personnel ... This adds an additional step in the chain of communication and is interruptive to the learning environment.”

The school department could seek reimbursement through an “e-rate” program for about 60 to 70 percent of the wiring costs, but the program would not help offset the costs for the other equipment that would be part of the project, Wilmot said. She told committee members she would keep them informed as she and Maintenance and Transportation Director John Merry look into possible phone systems.

Also at the meeting held in the Wiscasset Middle High School library, Wilmot and Merry praised the town’s public works and parks and recreation departments for their help with the latest round of work on the Wiscasset Elementary School playground. The new equipment was installed and the ground was prepared for bark mulch Merry expected to arrive Sept. 27. “We work very well together ... and (this) was a testament to that,” Merry said.

WMHS Principal Peg Armstrong updated the committee on the transition to proficiency-based education. Work is under way with teachers on the new grading system, she said. “It’s going along really well ... Every school system is experiencing growing pains, and there’s a lot of confusion and it’s mucky and murky, like ‘How do we really do this.’ It’s a total shift in how we look at how we evaluate students’ progress. And I’m really impressed with our teachers,” Armstrong said. “They’re working really hard to ... have it make sense.”

Armstrong also told the committee Mandy Lewis, who joined the department this year as districtwide athletic director and assistant principal, has brought a lot of positive, organized energy to WMHS. Lewis helped in the school’s overhaul of its student handbook to give more attention to learning positive behaviors, Armstrong said.

“I’ve just been delighted,” she said about Lewis’ work.

A new door will arrive at WES within weeks as part of the school’s change this year to a fully enclosed entry system, Principal Mona Schlein said. “It’s secure. It’s a very comforting way for kids and families to be able to access the school,” she said.

The Lincoln County Retired Teachers Association treated the WES staff to lunch and donated $150 for staff to buy supplies, Schlein said. She also thanked the Garden Club of Wiscasset for gardening behind the school.

Wilmot outlined a schedule to review options for a project stemming from Siemens Inc.’s energy audit. The finance committee is set to get an overview at 8 a.m. Oct. 4 at the central office; then the full school committee begins its look with a 5 p.m. Oct. 20 workshop with Siemens at WMHS, followed by more talks at the committee’s regular meeting at 6 p.m.

Wilmot anticipates the committee picking a project Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. at WMHS, and voting on a financing proposal Dec. 15, also at 6 p.m. at WMHS.