FARMINGTON — Regional School Unit 9 board of directors voted to approve an additional $240,000 that is being gifted to the district from the Bjorn Foundation for the new Career and Technical Education center at Mt. Blue Middle School on Tuesday, May 9.

In his report, Superintendent Christian Elkington gave an update on the CTE center that is set to be added to MBMS.

Elkington met with Sealander Architects and had them look at the project and make some adjustments. Upon review, they found they could reduce the cost of the project by roughly $300,000 by reducing the commercial kitchen that was to be a part of the building and putting it on hold.

Afterwards, Elkington met with the Bjorn Foundation and Richard Bjorn himself on two occasions to discuss the project. After much discussion, the Bjorn Foundation agreed to add a gift of $240,000 to the project to help it move forward.

“The Bjorn Foundation has generously agreed to add an extra gift of about $240,000 to the project,” Elkington stated. “And with some cost reductions, we will be able to follow through with that project.”

The Bjorn Foundation donated $2.5 million to the district, which was approved by the board in June of last year. Having discussed the project with RSU 9 administration for roughly six years before moving forward with the donation, Richard Bjorn has kept in touch with the project since it was approved by voters in November of last year.

In his report, Elkington wrote, “In calculating the interest that will be made on the total funds over the 15 months of the project, we will, with this new gift [if the Board approves it], along with the interest earned be able to move the project forward.”

According to Elkington, with the additional gift from the Bjorn Foundation along with the interest earned on the original $2.5 million, the district will be able to meet the construction company at $2.9 million for the project.

Director Gloria McGraw of Farmington stated that the Farmington Planning Board approved the plans for the Bjorn CTE project on Monday, May 8, and said the only comments were “no blasting.”

“I was not able to go to the meeting, but that was made clear,” Elkington stated. “And it was made clear on the phone call I had after the meeting. The plan is not to blast. It’s to tie into any rock that might be there. So, there will be no blasting.”

Director Richard Ruhlin of Industry asked Elkington if there was a proposed timeline for finishing the work of the commercial kitchen.

“That’s going to be pulled out,” Elkington answered. “So, there is no timeline for that at this time.”

“Anything in consideration, though?” Ruhlin asked, following that by stating that the space would be left an empty shell.

“We should have some kind of discussion about what the future might look like,” he added.

“We have not had that discussion yet,” Elkington stated, “and we’ll look to add that in. Right now, the work is planned on a 15 month [schedule], even if the kitchen had been added.

“One of the things that we’ve talked about,” he continued, “is pricing out what are the pieces that we would need to add and then formulating whether or not we could afford some of those pieces in the 2024-2025 budget and have our people do the work.”

In an email with Elkington, he stated they will look at other options in future years and the space may be used for another hands-on learning option instead.

The board voted in favor of the additional donation, with Director Charles Hinds of New Vineyard voting against it.