BRUNSWICK — Region Ten Technical High School may be getting a modular building in order to fully reopen to in-person instruction next school year, despite the pandemic.
The school’s facilities committee recommends installing a six-classroom building over the summer, in time to open full-time in the fall, said Interim Superintendent Paul Perzanoski on Monday.
Region Ten serves Brunswick School Department, Maine School Administrative District 75, Regional School Unit 5, as well as students from public charter school Harpswell Coastal Academy, Lisbon and Morse high school and homeschool students.
Region Ten has students divided into two groups, and students are only at Region Ten in person twice a week.
The school offers hands-on programs, including nursing, firefighting, culinary arts, automotive technology and building trades.
Perzanoski said there are nine programs that do not have adequate classroom space to distance students as required by the Maine Department of Education if Region Ten were to open full time.
The instruction portion of each of those nine programs would take place in the modular building, and students would return to the shops for hands-on activities, Perzanoski said.
Region Ten’s facilities committee suggested the school opt to sign five-year lease for $180,825 next year. Perzanoski said it would cost another $50,000 to construct concrete pads on which the building would sit. He said the hope is that there will be more federal pandemic relief funds to help pay for most of the installation costs so it doesn’t have to come out of the school operating budget.
Region Ten board member David Johnson said it’s the school’s job to serve students as best it can and that the school has no other choice but to provide additional space under current conditions.
“There’s literally closets those kids are in right now,” Johnson said. “There’s not any room for this school to grow. I don’t think any of us should be satisfied with the status quo. We’re going to have to come up with a solution and this seems to be the solution right now.”
Eric Lusk, a Maine School Administrative District 75 school board representative on the Region Ten board, said he’d like to move forward sooner than later on securing the modular building so Region Ten is ready to open full time possibly later this school year if circumstances allow.
“I don’t see any problem with us trying to move forward sooner rather than later,” Lusk said. “Who knows, with a little bit of luck maybe we have kids getting in them in April.”
Copy the Story Link
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
