BRUNSWICK

It may cost Brunswick’s school department $755,000 more than estimated to make repairs to the Coffin Elementary and Brunswick Junior High schools.

Estimates by PDT Architects showed repairs to Coffin costing around $1.9 million and junior high repairs costing about $3.2 million, according to superintendent Paul Perzanoski.

Facilities Director Paul Caron on Wednesday told the school board that PDT did not include several factors in their estimates.

Repairs to Coffin and the junior high will cost $380,000 and $275,000 more, respectively, Caron said.

Both schools may require roof and structural enhancements, as well as abatement of PCBs, a chemical used in a variety of applications including thermal insulation, until its manufacture was banned in 1979, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. PCBs are considered “probable human carcinogens” by the EPA.

Coffin School, which opened in 1955, needs additional work on its fire safety systems and repairs to its playground.

Brunswick Junior High School, which opened in 1959, requires water and sewer repairs, as well as repairs to its ropes course.

“I’m all for less flammable walls,” said Brunswick parent Dana Bateman wryly in an interview, expressing her worries for lifesafety issues previously cited at the schools. She said the board needs to implement both short-range and long-range plans to address the district’s aging facilities.

Bateman, who has children in the fourth and fifth grades, also noted Coffin School’s playground was “in dire need of repair, and has been since my kids were in kindergarten.”

Also on Wednesday, the school board supported Perzanoski’s five recommendations for addressing the district’s aging buildings.

Those include:

— Applying for the next round of state funding for construction projects. The school district may still need to seek an additional local bond, according to Perzanoski. However, the district, Perzanoski said, “is coming to the realization that we need to consider state funding going forward,” even if it’s two years away and there’s no guarantee of approval.

According to board member Rich Ellis, there is a less than 15 percent chance of receiving approval in two years. “To put all our eggs in that basket is foolish,” he said. — Planning for the emergency placement of students should a crisis with one of the existing school buildings occur.

— Developing a plan to gain support on a local bond to repair Coffin and BJHS, addressing the needs listed by Caron.

— Addressing the nowvacant Jordan Acres building, which may include repairing or razing the structure. Jordan Acres was closed by the board officially in June 2012, after a rafter split during the previous winter. Since then, the building has stood vacant.

“ It’s now costing us money to keep it, and it’s a liability as it is,” Perzanoski said, noting that the district may want to raze the building in order to place portable or mobile units in its place, should there be an emergency situation in which students would need to be housed for a length of time.

— Developing a longrange maintenance plan, which includes putting money into an account to address maintenance issues. Caron had previously recommended the board place about $ 1 million a year into such an account.

“We need to start to bite the bullet and put money away,” said Perzanoski.

While the board’s vote of Perzanoski’s plan was unanimous, some members expressed reservations.

Brenda Clough said that while she was not comfortable with the plan, “ we have no more options.”

“We waited too long,” she said, echoing remarks made in October lamenting the time it has taken for the board to form a facilities plan.

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com

What needs fixing?

COFFIN SCHOOL, which opened in 1955, needs additional work on its fire safety systems and repairs to its playground.

BRUNSWICK JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, which opened in 1959, requires water and sewer repairs, as well as repairs to its ropes course.