RSU 68 superintendent asks for support with central office referendum
By Stacy Shorey, RSU 68 superintendent
RSU 68 has been fortunate to receive $1.7 million in federal funds under the American Rescue Plan. The funds need to be spent on COVID-related issues. The application process requires school districts to have a plan on how to spend all of the funds and write projects for each expenditure, have a time for all constituents to have input into how the funds are spent and at least 20 percent of the funds have to be spent on student interventions. RSU 68’s application was approved in October.
A meeting was held in August with all interested parties to talk about how best to spend the funds. One area that came up several times is a classroom space for our new special education teacher. She is currently sharing a classroom with another teacher. Replacing the school roof was also discussed. The facilities study shows that the middle school roof is 45 years old. Staff requests also included stage lighting for drama, new furniture for classrooms, thematic books, and outdoor instruments. It was a lively discussion and all voices were heard.
When discussing how to create more space in the building we had two options. One was to build three classrooms and two bathrooms in the quad in the middle school.We have been drawing from a facilities study already for this addition. The cost for that is $1.4 million. The other option was to create a separate central office on the school property. This will create two classrooms, a room for the occupational therapist and a sensory room in the current superintendent’s office. The cost for a separate building is $550,000.
The RSU 68 board opted to move forward with the central office building because it will ensure that we had the 20 percent for student interventions (approximately $350,000) and would leave funds for a new roof. All of these projects will be paid for entirely out of ARP funds. The anticipated long term costs for electricity and heat are $1,000 per year. The application was approved for this project because we were able to show that we were creating more space and able to better spread students out.
The state of Maine requires that anytime a public entity increases their footprint by more that 600 square feet it must go to a referendum vote. Since this building is about 2,000 square feet, we are asking voters to approve the construction of a central office. Again, the funds to build the central office will come entirely from the American Rescue Plan.
The referendum vote will be on Dec. 7. In each community there are times that voting can take place. In Charleston it is from 9 a.m to 1 p.m. Dover-Foxcroft will offer voting from 4-8 p.m. Monson will be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sebec’s hours will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thank you in advance for voting and my hope is that you will vote to support the new RSU 68 Central Office so we can provide more classroom space in the SeDoMoCha building!