Two Wiscasset school security projects have outranked most other requests to Maine's School Revolving Renovation Fund. Maine Department of Education has nodded partnerships for Wiscasset to get a zero-interest loan of $474,955 for a project at Wiscasset Elementary School and a $318,356 one, also zero interest, for work at Wiscasset Middle High School, and only pay back 65.06% of each loan. 

Feb. 26, the school committee authorized Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kim Andersson to pursue the bond for the projects. SRRF was giving Wiscasset and other awardees 30 days to contact Maine Municipal Bond Bank. Education Commissioner Pender Makin's award letter is dated Jan. 30. So, Andersson said, that put the deadline at March 1.

As discussed in the special meeting, the plan so far is to apply to the bond bank and ask voters in June to approve that bond. Because it is for over a half million dollars, the bond would be repaid over 10 years, Andersson said. She said SRRF calls for projects to be finished within 20 months, and that payments would start after that, putting the first payment in the 2027-28 fiscal year.

If voters OK the bond, the plan is to start work on the security upgrades this summer, Andersson said.

Because Wiscasset School Department is a municipal school district, it could ask voters to use another means for the projects, such as the fund balance, Andersson said. But she said she and Town Manager Dennis Simmons agreed, better to leave that money in the fund balance earning money.

School committee members expressed interest in exploring possible grants to help toward the projects. Vice Chair Jonathan Barnes said he would have preferred that been done in tandem with seeking the SRRF awards.

"We can look into it," Andersson said. She did not think applying to the bond bank locks them into accepting the bond. Barnes figured the payments at $51,612 a year. 

Committee member Brycson Grover wanted to know where the payments will come from. Possibly annually from the fund balance, but the source can be decided each year, participants said. And if a grant or other source covered the debt, Andersson expected it could be paid off sooner, since it is a zero-interest loan. "They won't say, 'You need to pay it over 10 years,'" Andersson said.

Asked in a phone interview how surprised she was that those project requests to SRRF won, Andersson said: "I wasn't surprised at all. That work needs to be done. It needs to be done, desperately."

The winning applications to SRRF state, at WES, "a secure main entry vestibule (8' x 20') would be constructed, to be managed by administrative staff before, during, and after the school day. In addition to providing electronically controlled direct access to both sets of doors, there is proposed a separate controlled door with direct access to the office space without allowing access to the school facility itself ... There will be a concrete stoop just outside the first set of doors," with a roof overhang. Office areas would change some, including getting new windows, all to increase security.

At WMHS, the security project includes updating the vestibule and extending it, and changing the reception/office area to better separate staff from visitors. 

As listed at maine.gov, of the 35 projects statewide that prevailed in this round of SRRF, the security work at WES and WMHS came in at sixth and seventh, with 64 points each. 

Fifty-four other eligible proposals ranked too low for funding, including Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements at WES, garnering 44.5 points, and ADA work at WMHS involving a ramp (40 points) and an elevator (34 points).

"We've got the drawings and specs in case we want to do (those projects) at a different time, with different money," Andersson told the committee.

Eight other proposals, none from Wiscasset, were found ineligible.