RSU 40/MSAD 40 board moves a roughly $24.9 million high‑school renovation bond to the warrant

The RSU 40/MSAD 40 school board voted to place a high‑school capital‑improvement warrant article on the ballot that will authorize a 20‑year bond for roughly $24.9 million to repair and renovate the district high‑school building.

The superintendent, speaking at the meeting, said the building’s condition requires immediate attention and urged consistent staff and community support: "fixing your high school is the most important thing you're going to do right now," the superintendent said. Architects and district staff told the board the work focuses on health and safety — asbestos tile removal, a required sprinkler/fire‑separation upgrade, modern HVAC and accessibility improvements — rather than building an addition or renovating the auditorium.

Why it matters: presenters and staff said a concentrated renovation will bring the 1960s‑era building up to code, reduce operational inefficiencies and address long‑standing accessibility and safety shortcomings. The design team said the building is about 105,000 square feet, identified roughly 50,000 square feet of hazardous flooring to be remediated, and recommended a phased construction plan carried out mostly over three summers, starting with asbestos abatement.

Details the board heard: project goals emphasized "health, safety and accessibility," space optimization and fiscal restraint, with the architects explaining they deliberately excluded an auditorium renovation and a new addition to keep cost and scope focused on code‑driven fixes and programmatic needs. The team said state grants and revolving renovation funds lowered the local ask: they cited a roughly $1.5 million state grant for asbestos and water‑system work and earlier revolving‑renovation funds that reduced the bond by several million dollars.

Motion and vote: the chair asked for a motion to approve placing the capital‑improvement project on the warrant as a 20‑year bond "not to exceed" the figure read into the record (the motion as read on the record included two slightly different numeric readbacks; the board discussed the exact wording). The motion was moved and seconded; the chair announced the motion passed (the transcript records the board’s vote tallies in numeric form as recorded during the meeting).

What’s next: if approved by voters, the district plans to begin asbestos abatement and related abatement work during the coming summer, complete schematic and construction documents, and proceed with phased construction across subsequent summers so the occupied school can remain in use during the school year.

Sources: presentation to the board by Noble Studio (architect) and EEI as recorded in the RSU 40/MSAD 40 board meeting transcript. The meeting record includes the motion language as read and the roll/hand counts as announced by the chair.