Ever wonder why there are no school bells at Minot Forest Elementary? It’s because they’ll overload the circuit board, as Principal Joan Seamans found out when she tried to use them several years ago.

The bells are just one of the long list of infrastructure problems the school has, Seamans said, which is why the district is once again applying for a renovation and expansion application from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.

The district applied for renovation funds three years ago. Though the authority approved the request, voters in July 2012 shot down the request for feasibility study funds to the tune of $575,000. Up to 75 percent of the funds would have been reimbursed.

The same is true three years later, and Seamans hopes the request goes through, this time. Among the issues Minot Forest faces is a small amount of asbestos residue in the ceiling tiles. Though it isn’t enough to pose a health risk to the students or teachers in the day-to-day operations of the school, and the custodians are trained to work around them, Seamans said she must bring in outside companies to replace the tile, or handle them if they are disturbed.

“We had to have four classrooms retiled two summers ago,” Seamans said. “We had to call a company to remove the tiles, test the air quality, and replace the tiles. It cost us $25,000 to do four classrooms, and that doesn’t include the tile we had to purchase.”

But the ceiling tiles aren’t the school’s only safety concern. There is no sprinkler system in the building, due to its age. Though the building has smoke detectors, Seamans said the staff take the extra precaution to keep all the doors within the hallways shut, and limit the amount of paper they put on the walls. However, if the renovation goes through, Seamans said, they will be required to add sprinklers.

The cooler weather also means the school has to put plastic over the windows, in order to keep the heat in, as the windows are original to the building.

“I lost a computer, because it got so cold, one winter,” Seamans said.

Also original to the building are the boilers, the generators, and the elevator, for all of which Seamans said, the custodians are having trouble finding parts.

Since last winter, the school has become smaller, too. Seamans said the school lost the use of the portable classrooms behind the school, after they started leaking, due to heavy snowfall.

“We had them inspected, and, although they were structurally sound, we couldn’t guarantee the roof would be fine if we got more snow and rain,” Seamans said. “The wood is falling off … and we have started getting mold in the ceiling. It is way too costly to repair them.”

Without the portable classrooms, Seamans said, there is no more art room – “art is back on a cart” – music is held in the gymnasium, and four special education teachers teach in one room.

“The expansion would give us back classrooms we lost, plus a few extra,” Seamans said. “Enrollment within the next few years is a bubble coming up from Decas [Elementary], so we have to plan on extra classroom space.”

Seamans said the request for renovation must go through the Massachusetts School Building Authority, before it goes to Town Meeting.