By Nick Mattera
The Lewiston-Porter School District showcased improvements made during phase two of its capital improvement plan by holding Monday’s Board of Education meeting in its newly renovated high school library.
School board President Keith Fox said the library is the heart of the school and is something the board is proud of now that it is complete.
“We made a substantial effort to purchase books and art,” Fox said. “It turned out better than we could have anticipated.”
District Superintendent Chris Roser said that phase two of the project focused mainly on technological improvements, but also highlight infrastructure maintenance issues.
“We now have wireless access points throughout all of our buildings, that took a lot of work,” Roser said. “There are 50 new smart boards in our district, with more to come.”
The district made roof repairs to the primary and middle school buildings, citing numerous leaks.
The capital improvement project began in 2005 when the public voted to allow the district to bond the $26.8 million. Following the completion of the current phase the district had a $1.1 million surplus, however following a number of change orders that number dropped to $600,000.
“We have no plans for those funds at this time,” Roser said. “I think we will hold onto it for future projects we have in mind.”
Fox agrees, saying that while phase two mostly focused on the elementary and middle school facilities, the high school is still in need of improvements.
“There’s a lot to fix,” he said. “We haven’t finalized our priorities yet, but we hope to further our improvement plan without any cost to the taxpayer.”
Fox said that he believes the district can use Greenway funds to pay for any additional necessary improvements.
The district plans to hire an architect to do an age analysis of all aspects of the buildings as is required every five years by the State Education Department. He said that this facility plan, helps dictate how much money in building aid will be released to the individual districts.
While Roser said he has no plans for the surplus funds, he did agree that the high school was an area of concern.
“There is a lot more that needs to be done,” he said. “(The high school) needs new windows, HVAC improvements and a number of other structural renovations.”
A timeline could not be placed on when these improvements could begin.
In other meeting notes, the district received a $10,000 gift from local businessman Jeff Tedesco, owner of Tedesco Construction to be added to the capital improvement project fund. Tedesco said he hoped the funds are used in the construction of a new scoreboard at the high school’s football field.
The district showed their appreciation for Tedesco by declaring a to-be-determined “Jeff Tedesco Day.”
