CARIBOU, Maine — At the end of the day on July 31, the doors of the current Superintendent’s Building on Sincock Street will close for their last official time.
The RSU 39’s administrative offices are being moved to a space at the Learning Center on Bennett Drive, where staff with carpentry abilities have been transitioning under-utilized space into offices.
Superintendent of the RSU 39 Frank McElwain explained that the move is intended to save money.
“We like this building and this space,” he said of the Sincock Street building, “but it’s an extra building in a time when money’s tight and we have space in some of our schools.”
McElwain explained that the move will save the school unit funds by decreasing the building’s annual operating costs and mitigating future expenses.
The annual operating cost to maintain one floor of the building— heat, lights, water — was not a large expense, but the facility will require repairs in the future.
“The bigger problem is that it’s a facility that requires some attention, most notably its siding on the outside,” McElwain described, mentioning that the building’s roof will need some work in the future as well as the boiler.
As the school unit’s buildings all have some decades on them, McElwain said that financial emphasis has been placed on keeping the schools maintained as opposed to the Sincock Street facility.
“We just couldn’t see putting $100,000 or $200,000 into this building when we could carve out space (in another building) and give it up,” McElwain said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s the right thing to do.”
The future of the current Superintendent’s Building is undetermined; if the RSU no longer has use for it as a school building, McElwain said that it would be offered to the city.
“If they choose not to accept it, then it will be our responsibility to do something with it, whether that’s try to sell it on the open market, keep it for cold storage or pay the cost of demolition to try to sell the land,” the superintendent explained.
