KENNEBUNK — Regional School Unit 21 is awaiting word on whether the school district will qualify for up to $1 million in state funding to help with renovations to the ailing Middle School of the Kennebunks.
Improvements to the building will take place over the next year, regardless of whether the district qualifies for state aid. But according to Superintendent of Schools Andrew Dolloff, the district will have to wait on the status of that aid before moving forward with renovation plans. The reason, he said, is that the RSU would rather not spend reserve federal stimulus money from 2009 on improvements that may be more extensive if the state does grant funding.
As an example, Dolloff said at a school board meeting this month that the district could replace pinholes in the roof of the building for a cost of $150,000, “but if we receive funds from the state in September,” he said, “we’d most likely put a new roof on with those funds,” effectively making the initial $150,000 investment obsolete.
“We’re trying to move forward (in) spending those stimulus funds in such a way that the work wouldn’t be replaced,” said Dolloff at the meeting. “We’re trying to move forward in a way that shows the staff and the community that we’re addressing water intrusion issues, but we also don’t want to move so quickly that we end up spending that money twice.”
The middle school has been struggling with water intrusion and air quality issues almost since the building opened its doors in 2002. Frustration came to a head in February of this year, when MSK staff sent the letter to Dolloff, complaining of the poor conditions. In the letter, staff members list health issues ranging from upper respiratory troubles to a doubling of vision, which they believe have been caused by mold and stagnant air in the building.
“We have felt that the school is not a safe place for some time now and we have been patient through many interventions,” the letter stated. “At this point, it is clear to us that something more must be done before any more of our staff members and students are harmed by the state of our building.”
School board member John Sharood, who also serves on the finance committee, said that regardless of the status of state aid, leftover funds from 2009’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ”“ more commonly known as “the stimulus” ”“ will have to be used to address many of the building’s ongoing issues.
“The upcoming work at MSK will require some of those ARRA funds,” said Sharood at a school board meeting earlier this month. “They have been designated in the past for that purpose.”
While recent statements from some school board members seem to imply that the district has been considering the pursuit of legal action against the contractor who worked on renovations last summer, Dolloff said that litigation is highly unlikely. That is because the firm doing the work, PM Construction, has been cooperating with the RSU in locating areas in the building that have not held up as well as expected.
“We have received a positive response from them,” said Dolloff on Wednesday. “The work (last summer) was related to preventing water intrusion. A year later ”¦ some of it hasn’t held up. They want to make sure that the work is up to their standards.”
Dolloff said that improvement work will likely begin sometime during the school year.
“The roofing and siding can be done during the school year,” he said.
— Staff Writer Jeff Lagasse can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 319, or at jlagasse@journaltribune.com.
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