Imagine going to school on a winter morning and knowing you’ll have to wear your coat through your first class.

By your third class, in another part of the building, you remove not only your coat but your sweater because the classroom is too hot.

Imagine windows falling out into a classroom you’re in … or one falling out as you walk beneath it on the lawn. Imagine tripping over permanent extension cords that power everything from slide projectors to microscopes to a teacher’s laptop. Imagine a bathroom with fixtures dating from 1929.

“Our windows are screwed shut because the plastic parts that were installed with the windows years ago have rotted away,” Morse High School Principal John Pinkerton. “Not too long ago, a five-foot section of a window fell in and hit a seat where only five minutes earlier, a student had been sitting.”

Pinkerton says there’s a fire escape that would likely collapse if used to evacuate a full Montgomery Theatre. And he noted the school’s accreditation is on the line because of substandard science labs, and other facilities issues.

We’re not talking about a one-room schoolhouse here. This is Morse High School — home to 640 of our youngsters from Bath, Arrowsic, Woolwich, Phippsburg and West Bath.

Morse has the most severe problems, but it is by no means alone. The elementary schools have problems ranging from needed roof repairs at Dike- Newell and West Bath schools to problems with the hot water and heating at Dike-Newell and Fisher-Mitchell, to the replacement of the leach field at Phippsburg. Bath Middle School needs of a roof for the gym and three wings of the school, as well as new flooring. Bath Regional Career and Training School needs heating controls. All of the schools need new secure front doors. The only school in the whole district that isn’t slated for repair is the brand-new Woolwich Central School.

When the repairs are done, Morse will save 15 percent on heat and another 15 percent on hot water, saving about $50,000 per year.

It is possible that Morse will get the nod to be replaced, perhaps in 10 years. But until then, whole classes of students will have come into the school, and moved on. And doing the repairs will make no difference to Morse’s position on the school replacement list.

Students shouldn’t have to attend a school where the ventilation system is dangerous, or a roof may cave in on them, or a fire escape crumble under their weight.

By bonding now, while interest rates are still relatively low, the major problems with Morse — problems that could and might very well force the school to shut down — can be corrected.

The vast majority of RSU1’s students will attend Morse High School and Bath Middle School.

Woolwich Central School had considerable support from the other RSU towns to build its beautiful new school. The 2009 referendum to build it was overwhelmingly in support: 984-218.

While it may not be possible to provide such a school to all RSU1 students today, it is something we should be striving toward.

And the very least we should be doing is voting to provide a safe environment, conducive to learning, at the older schools.

Please vote yes on the RSU 1 bond measure on Nov. 5. Do the right thing for our kids.