Ellsworth schools report $2M+ in TELP-funded upgrades, propose $1.1M phase 2

Superintendent Amy Bowles told the City Council that the Ellsworth School Department used a tax-exempt lease purchase, or TELP, to fund phase 1 facility projects removed from the FY25 budget and that the district is proposing a phase 2 TELP in the FY26 budget process.

Bowles said the phase 1 projects — which she said were in last year’s FY25 budget at a cost of more than $2,000,000 before being rolled into a TELP — were completed over the summer and into the fall and included a new boiler plant at Ellsworth High School, heat-pump installations, LED lighting across the district, window and roof replacements and work at the Hancock County Technical Center (HCTC). “Tax exempt lease purchase,” Bowles said when asked to name the financing tool.

Bowles told councilors the TELP structure provided a year of no payments followed by scheduled payments and allowed the district to capture available rebates and to contract EMC to manage the projects. She said EMC’s management made it possible to complete many projects before the start of the school year and that the firm also ran a STEM Academy for students during the work.

The presentation included project-level details Bowles gave to the council: LEDs were installed across the system, the high school received a reconfigured boiler plant and oil-tank removal, the sixth-grade wing roof work was completed, and Ellsworth High School had windows and a fourth of five roof sections replaced. Bowles said one phase of windows at the high school remains to be done and that the district won a state 0% revolving renovation loan for HCTC to rebuild an elevator and upgrade controls.

Facilities director David Stevens answered council questions about expected service life for major elements. “For your for the flat roof that was replaced for a rubber membrane roof, the typical life expectancy is in there for 30 to 40 years. Great. Boilers, those, propane boilers are probably 30 to 35 years as well,” Stevens said. He added that heat pumps typically last “anywhere from 8 to 15 years.”

Bowles said the district is evaluating options for phase 2 — including refinancing phase 1 if a lower interest rate is available or structuring a second TELP — and that the FY26 budget presented to council will include the first TELP payment for phase 1. She gave a point estimate for the TELP payment schedule shown to the council: about $198,000 per year through 02/1939 under the agreement she displayed, and she said the phase 1 financing was a 15-year agreement at 4.9%.

Phase 2 would cover the final high-school roof section; the last windows at Ellsworth High School; another heat-pump replacement at the elementary school; auditorium and stage lighting; renovation of high-school bathrooms; controls integration across the district; and the district’s share of track lighting (Bowles said the school department would handle lights at the track and that $100,000 is held in reserve). Bowles gave an approximate total cost for phase 2 of about $1.1 million, with estimated utility rebates of about $96,000 and estimated first-year energy savings of roughly $15,800.

Bowles said EMC’s role included bidding, project management and on-site oversight and that the company charges a management fee that the school estimated at roughly 5–10% built into the project budgets. The superintendent described the TELP approach as a way to spread capital costs without a single large budget hit to taxpayers and to take advantage of efficiency incentives while they were available.

The council was told staff will present FY26 budget documents at the upcoming meeting; Bowles said the district will continue to pursue the refinancing and phase 2 options and that the state construction list will determine final timing for some HCTC work.

Bowles and Stevens’ materials and remarks were presented to the council during the facilities update portion of the meeting; the council did not take a formal vote on TELP phase 2 during the session.