Bourne School Department Makes $1.2 Million Capital Request

BOURNE – The Bourne School Department has requested $1.2 million in capital spending.

The department intends to use the funds on repairs to the school’s wastewater treatment plant, upgrades to teaching technology in the classrooms, new mini-buses, and on new equipment for the playground.

School Business Director Jordan Geist and Acting School Superintendent Perry Davis were at the capital outlay committee earlier this month.

They said the majority of the funding would go towards the wastewater treatment plant repairs, located just behind the Bourne Middle School.

Geist said that repairs on the plant were put off last year due to unexpected town expenses, though now the plant has degraded to the point where it has become a school priority.

As for class technology, $290,000 of the money requested would go towards 35 hover cameras and touch screen televisions for the Bourne Middle School classrooms.

“The hovercams and the touchscreen televisions that pair up with them really are designed to bring education into the next century. These are cutting edge, award winning pieces of technology,” said Geist.

“This leads to high student engagement. Teachers love the technology, they can do a million different things with it and the kids can as well.”

Geist said that while the intermediate school is well supplied with modern equipment, the middle school is lagging behind in terms of updated classroom technology, with many classes still using quickly wearing out projectors.

“For the 5th graders moving into that next year, they’re going to go back a couple steps to the old projectors mounted on the ceiling that the town put that capital request in for over ten years ago,” said Geist.

$130,000 of the funds would go towards replacing two of the mini-buses, which have served the department well over the past 12 years, but now require too much maintenance and upkeep due to keep in use.

New playground equipment and surfacing would take up $50,000 of the requested funding.

Grass mats would go in the playground and replace the rubber currently present—either being laid over it or requiring the old rubber be removed—and would be a cheaper material that’s still compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The new play equipment planned would better fit the k-2 students who will be primarily using the playground, now that the 3-4 graders are now at the intermediate school, said Geist.

Next year’s budget is still in the beginning stages of review by the capital committee.