BRUNSWICK

All eyes and ears may be upon the town council during its Dec. 5 meeting, now that the Brunswick School Board has voted to send a $33.6 million school building improvement plan to the council for review.

The vote came during the school board’s Nov. 9 meeting.

Ultimately, it will be up to residents registered to vote to approve up or down next spring the dollar amount that will be used to replace the 51-year-old Coffin Elementary School plus renovate the Brunswick Junior High School.

Town and school officials are reviewing financial projections, which include bond financing over a set time, said town Finance Director Julia Henze.

The council will be asked to ultimately send the building budget plan to a referendum, where voters will decide its fate.

“There’s plenty of time for us to look at numbers,” Henze said.

A goal is to make the final spending plan as palatable as possible, she said.

It’s been over a year that town and school leaders have spent time working on repair, renovation or replacement plans for both schools.

School Board Facilities Chairman Sarah Singer said state funding to help with repairs may be unlikely. To do so takes years of applying, with intermittent approvals by the state, if that comes to pass. State funding helped build the Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School.

“We’re applying for funding for both schools,” Singer said by phone. “It would be crazy not to put our hat in.”

Singer could not attend last week’s meeting to vote on the $33.6 million due to illness, she said.

“I would have voted in favor,” said Singer.

Board member Cory Perreault also was unable to attend the Nov. 9 meeting.

School board Chairman William Thompson and Janet Connors, who did not seek re-election this month for another term, voted against the $33.6 million sum. Almost all of that tally is earmarked for a new Coffin school.

Brenda Clough, who ran for reelection and did not win, abstained from voting.

Four members who voted in support of that building budget sum included Vice Chairwoman Joy Prescott, Teresa Gillis, Richard Ellis and James Grant.

Singer said in the end, residents will decide the building budget in a referendum vote in June.

“It’s not appropriate for the board to be lobbyists,” Singer said.

Rather, it’s the community that will decide.

A property revaluation is ongoing and this may change the tax rate, all of which will factor into how much the cost per property owner will be for both schools’ renovations.

Currently, the town’s tax rate is $29.35 per $1,000 valuation. The residential and commercial tax rate is the same. The taxable valuation for an average home in Brunswick is $115,000.

“I think the council is going to take a sharp pencil,” said District 5 Town Councilor Dan Harris, who said he spoke about the funding issue last week as a private citizen.

“Everybody knows we need a new elementary school, and everybody knows we’ve got to do some repairs on the junior high,” he said. “Just because it’s been appropriated doesn’t mean it has to be spent.”