Bangor district works on five-year plan

Recognizing the need to prioritize spending needs for the future, Bangor School Board members hope to soon approve a five-year plan.

The plan, introduced to the school board last week, is expected to have three main priorities: Replacing sections of the roof at the middle/high school, expanding school security systems and reducing heating/cooling and energy costs.

The list of things needing to be replaced or upgraded was put together recently by the district’s Buildings and Grounds Committee.

“I guess the big thing for us is to get that five-year plan put together and show it to this board,” Superintendent Dave Laehn said.

School board President Dave Vetrano, who chairs the building and grounds committee, said the list will be for more expensive items, with departments able make decisions on improvements costing less than $2,000.

He said the committee can look every year at what can be taken off of the list and what should go onto the list.

“So we start documenting everything that we really need to do,” Vetrano said.

“Big ones, not so big ones, so we can get some things on a rotation and every year update that plan.”

While Vetrano called the list “comprehensive,” Laehn said the roof, security and energy efficiency are by far the main priorities.

Laehn said the middle/high school, which was built 15 years ago, has some “trouble spots” on the roof, and that areas will be replaced section by section.

“To do it all at once is just so cost prohibitive,” Laehn said. He said he’s not sure what the repairs will cost.

No money for the repairs has been set aside in the upcoming budget, so he expects work to be done further into the future.

The district is in the midst of updating its security system, at an estimated cost of $25,000.

Cameras have been added in the middle/high school, and school now has a controlled access entrance.

There are plans to add security cameras to the elementary school and the bus parking lot area.

Laehn said there also are plans to replace the lighting in the elementary school an outside the middle/high with more energy efficient LED lights.

Also, he said the district needs to update its heating/cooling system, so that when only certain sections of the schools are used in the summer, only those sections would need to be cooled. More information about the program is available on the web site at indoorlite.