When Heather Wilmot was a Wiscasset superintendent of schools candidate touring the facilities, she noticed the lighting in a school library. “It was very, very dim, low-hung, and the lights, I knew, were older than I was.”

She also remembers being cold.

That got her thinking. About a year into the superintendent’s job, she still is thinking about a way to get work done on the school department’s buildings without a big tax hit. The updates would potentially cover all four facilities: the two schools, the superintendent’s office and the bus garage, where, among other needs, Transportation and Maintenance Director John Merry would like to replace the building’s original, 1970s furnace.

The work is likely to total more than $1 million, according to Wilmot and Merry. They said the plan they have in mind would accomplish it with the resultant energy savings offsetting the town’s payments.

State law governs each step a district has to follow to finance projects with an energy services company, Wilmot said. The state calls for the financing to be in the form of a professional services agreement, not a bond, she said.

“You have to budget for the (payments) that you’re spreading out over multiple years, and what happens is, your school department operates more efficiently. And that’s where your savings comes from.” So those parts of the budget can be lowered, Wilmot said.

She and Merry first approached the School Committee with the idea in January. The committee then took the first step, directing Wilmot to prepare a request for companies to give their qualifications for an energy audit. In April, the panel hired Siemens of Scarborough for the audit. If the town picks up a performance contract with Siemens to work on the buildings, the audit’s estimated $14,986 cost is rolled into the contract, Wilmot said.

Based on some past experience each has had with similar plans in other districts, both administrators are hopeful Wiscasset’s will come to fruition.

“I’m looking forward to it. It’s a great thing to do, and the results will be really good,” including improvements to students’ learning environment, Merry said. While Merry was directing maintenance for Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12, the district started a project to change fluorescent lighting to LED; get Whitefield Elementary School a new propane boiler; and help buildings retain heat with new insulation, he said.

A project in Lisbon, where Wilmot served as an assistant superintendent, was bigger than Wiscasset’s would be; but it was designed for significant savings and better efficiency, “as we intend to do here in Wiscasset,” Wilmot said.

Just driving past, people won’t be able to see most of the improvements, Merry said. “But once they get inside, the lighting will set a different tone. The building will be more comfortable because it’s vented properly. The heating will be more balanced, so one room isn’t people sitting there with sweaters on and the next room’s got fans in the window.”

The company is responsible for meeting the annual savings projections, so it sets the parameters for department staff to follow on the buildings’ operations, Merry said.

“And if we don’t reach their projected savings, they write us a check,” he said.

Wilmot’s approach to her superintendency and her support of his efforts are a help to Merry. “It’s motivated me. We’re making really good progress. Now we have an aggressive superintendent with some forethought.

“It’s going to keep me around a few more years,” he said.