With the feasibility study for improvements to the Minot Forest Elementary School building, and roof repair and boiler replacement project at John W. Decas Elementary School approved by Town Meeting on Monday night, the School Committee celebrated a few successes and are on their feet to get them moving.

Replacement of the 46-year old roof and 45-year old boilers at Decas will be conducted by the Massachusetts State Building Authority (MSBA) Accelerated Repair. The total cost of the project could be up to $2,442,181, but the state will reimburse 70 percent of that cost.

The project will go out to bid at the end of July, and construction will begin mid to late August with completion in early November, said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kimberly Shaver-Hood during Wednesday night's School Committee Meeting.

Shaver-Hood also explained that if heat is needed in the school building before completion of the project, the school has plans to rent a boiler in the meantime.

Regarding the Minot Forest project, Dr. Shaver-Hood said, "Our goal is to have our initial phase completed so we will be eligible to be placed on the MSBA fall agenda of October or November of this year."

After having a feasibility study done around July, the study will go to the MSBA again for a bid for accelerated repair.

"This is the very beginning of a multi-year project, and I do stress multi-year," said Shaver-Hood. She moved to implement a school building committee and asked for community involvement in the project.

What the project entails has not been decided yet, but the purpose is to renovate the building which has faced a number of issues in the past few years. These include but are not limited to a lack of a sprinkler system, a small amount of asbestos residue in the ceiling tiles, loss of portable classroom space, school bells that will overload the circuit, and windows original to the building.

The study could possibly combine the two elementary schools together, or create a multi-building campus for Minot Forest.