A subcontractor tasked in 2009 to count the high school windows missed some—and that means the approved funds to replace windows at two schools is about $500,000 short. Now what?

That’s the question with which the school building committee and CREC, the town’s general contractor, has been grappling for the past month.

The town in May 2013 approved $1.925 million to fund various capital projects designed to improve energy efficiency at the town’s school buildings. The projects included new natural gas boilers at Daisy Ingraham Elementary School, replacing the high school roof and adding rooftop solar panels, rebuilding the rooftop air-handling units, and upgrading lighting. All of these improvements are completed.

The only school capital projects under this bonding authorization not yet completed are the window replacements at the two schools. Originally, the town estimated the cost for this work at $200,000 for the high school portion and $250,000 for the Daisy windows. However, due to the undercount of the high school windows and the need to include new security requirements in windows at Daisy, this original estimate was too low.

Fortunately, the language of the bonding resolution grants the Board of Education authority to adjust the scope of individual school capital projects and to shift funding between projects on the list as needed. As a result, savings accrued in one school improvement project can be re-allocated to another project.

According to Finance Director Andrew Urban, about $650,000 remains from the town’s original $1.9 million bond authorization for school improvements. This amount includes savings tied to a school building committee decision last year to refurbish rather than replace an aging rooftop ventilation unit.

But due to the original window undercount, the extra $164,000 from the rooftop ventilation project and other incidental capital project savings, when added to the $450,000, still does not yield enough funding to support both window projects.

How did the undercount occur? Perhaps it was a misunderstanding about what constitutes one window rather than two. Or perhaps it was because the contractor failed to count the window walls facing the school’s courtyard. However it happened, the building committee now must try to arrive at a project solution that recognizes the funding shortfall that the undercount created.

On April 9, the school building committee met with representatives of CREC to discuss the options. And the path the committee chose is to move forward now with the less complex portion of the project, replacing the high school windows.

The base price to buy and install 99 to 104 new windows at Westbrook High School is estimated by CREC to cost about $450,000. If a special insert is added between the double-paned windows to meet higher school security standards, the cost would rise an extra $80,000. That would put the total estimated cost of the high school window replacement project at about $530,000.

With a total of $650,000 available, the high school window replacement could proceed this summer if CREC moves quickly. And even though the Daisy Ingraham School window project is now on hold due to a lack of funding, it’s not dead.

Instead, the building committee and CREC’s current project lead, Paul Drummey, are moving forward to finalize drawings and specifications to complete the Daisy School window walls’ replacement in the summer of 2016. About $120,000 will remain of school project bond funding for Daisy design planning even after the high school window project is paid for.

CREC has estimated that the town would need to secure about $500,000 more than is currently available to complete the Daisy School window wall replacement.

Urban said he is discussing with the Board of Finance various financing options to pay for the Daisy window project including possibly issuing short-term, five-year notes. Short-term municipal notes like these typically carry interest rates of less than one percent.