Siemens has done a lot of energy projects in Maine schools, but never found a staff with as much to say about their buildings as Wiscasset’s school employees have offered, a representative of the Scarborough firm said.

“Too hot, too cold, extreme fluctuation, uncomfortable,” Siemens K-12 market manager Tom Seekins read from staff comments.  “It’s pretty glaring,” he said in summing up the feedback. And there’s little that Transportation and Maintenance Director John Merry can do to address it with the existing systems, Seekins said. “It is what it is.” Even all new buildings don’t solve everything, but a project that makes changes would certainly help, he said.

Seekins and other Siemens staff were updating the School Committee in a workshop Aug. 25, about the energy audit under way. The committee ordered it in April. When it’s done, the company will offer options to choose from, depending on the size of the project the committee wants, Seekins said. The project would be designed for energy savings to offset costs, which would likely top $1 million, school department officials have said.

An $80,000 incentive from Efficiency Maine may cover the down payment, and the company is looking for renovations grants that may help also, Seekins said.

He noted the most recent wing at either school is about 45 years old. Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot, 37, noted that that’s older than she is.

Much of the feedback has been on the 1960s wing at Wiscasset Middle High School, where Seekins said school staff reported times when students have refused to stay in a room due to the cold, and then later the same room has become hot.

Merry said in that wing, when the thermostat recognizes that the room temperature has been satisfied, outside air, whatever temperature it is, comes in. “Depending on what the air temperature is outside, that’s the degree of air that’s coming in the space. So I think that has a lot to do with the feeling hot and the feeling cold issues.”

“Also ... basically that wing (has) a four-foot cement wall and you’ve got insulated windows and insulated paneling sitting on top of concrete, so it’s past its age, and we’re hoping that new controls will provide that balance that we’re looking for” from a project, Merry added.

Seekins said so far the audit is showing a number of areas to improve, among them, lighting. The WMHS library has terrible lighting and dark corners, Seekins said. “So this would be a crazy difference” with new lighting, he said. To show the difference to expect in classroom lighting, the company did something it’s never done, but is finding hugely helpful and may do in other audits, Seekins said: Changing the lighting in a classroom at each of the two schools, as a mockup, he said.

Merry called it a day and night difference.

He and Wilmot said teachers are checking it out and liking it. They’re becoming hopeful about what a project could bring, Wilmot said after the meeting.

Energy projects have evolved in about the last five years to also factor in aesthetics, due to the boost a school’s look can give a community, Seekins told the committee. “It’s no longer just going through and just trying to find the absolute-lowest bang for your buck ... It’s doing what’s going to last for a long time ... finding a way creatively to get a new siding done” or alter the windows, he said.

Committee member Eugene Stover asked if a project would interrupt classes. It would not, according to Seekins. The company does the work over summer break, and sometimes over February break, he said. “Zero effect on the classrooms.”

Vice Chairman Glen Craig expressed support for how the process has gone so far. “We’ve done as a team our due diligence enough (and) you guys are definitely the real deal as far as what you’re doing, from what I’ve seen.”

Merry thanked the committee for the support he said it has continued to show. “It’s really a big deal.”

Having Merry on staff is fortunate for the school department, Seekins said. Technology can sometimes be scary for facilities directors, he said. “It’s only as good as the person using it. And luckily that’s not an issue here, no hesitation to go into the next century in how you can control your buildings. So it’s a bonus.”