Brooklin gears up for school renovation vote | Community News … – The Weekly Packet

by Will Robinson

Early on the morning of November 14, a handful of residents gathered in the Brooklin School staff lounge for an informational session on the upcoming school renovation vote. After passing out coffee and muffins, school board chair Kathleen Kazmierczak went through the details of the $4 million work plan.

We did our due diligence; we looked at just about everything, she said to a resident who asked about alternative sources of funding.

The coffee-fueled info session was one of several taking place in the lounge since the select board approved the school renovation proposal on October 4. As the December special town meeting draws closer, Kazmierczak intends to spread the word any way she can.

Were sending out 933 mailings, she said, pointing to a box of hundreds of letters to be sent that morning.

A formal public hearing will be held on Tuesday, November 28, at 7 p.m. in the school gym. Another informal information session will be held in the staff lounge on Thursday, December 14, from 8 to 9 a.m.

The vote is on Tuesday, December 19, from 2 to 6 p.m. in the town office. Voters will be asked, by secret ballot, to approve a $4,371,958 municipal bond for renovations to the K-8 school.

Renovation details

The renovations touch on almost every aspect of the building, from the parking lot to the plumbing. The largest and most important item on the list, according to School Union 76 Superintendent Dan Ross, is the heating system. On a tour of the school in his first few weeks as superintendent, Ross said he immediately noticed the problem.

If someone asked me that first day what my immediate source of concern was for the building, it would be the heating system, and that has not changed a year later, he said in a letter to Brooklin residents.

Back in 1998, the school was outfitted with two oil burning boilers. In 2015, the heating system was altered to include a wood pellet boiler, keeping a single oil backup system. In 2021, the pellet stove was removed for not meeting state standards, leaving the job of heating the building to one aging boiler.

Losing the boiler, Ross said, means Brooklin students will become Sedgwick or Deer Isle-Stonington students for however long it would take until the school can reopen.

The new heating system, costing approximately $897,000, will feature a centralized heat pump system and a propane backup. Other projects include roofing, siding and paving as well as updates to the electrical, plumbing, ventilation and insulation systems.

David Bowden, Brooklin Schools head custodian, said most of the wood siding is original and in desperate need of replacement. While not essential to keeping the school open, Bowden said neglecting the smaller projects will be just as detrimental in the long run.

Its all stuff that needs to be fixed, he said.

If voters approve the expense, Ross said the project is scheduled to begin the day after students leave in June and end by the time they return in September.

Tax increases

If approved, the municipal bond is expected to be paid off over 15 years. Brooklins mill rate is expected to increase from 7.3 to 7.79 in the first year, then to 8.35 in the second year, with no further increase. Residents will go from paying $7.79 in taxes per $1,000 in property value to $8.35 per $1,000.

According to data from the Brooklin town office, a house assessed at $250,000 currently pays $1,825 in property taxes. If the project is approved, this number increases to $1,947 (a $122 increase) in the first year, then to $2,087 in the second year ($140 increase), for a total increase of $262 over this years mill rate.

In his letter, Ross said the town currently does not hold any debt and the project represents approximately 1% of your total local valuation.

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Brooklin gears up for school renovation vote | Community News ... - The Weekly Packet