WOLFEBORO – The Governor Wentworth Regional School District is looking to add more than $1 million to the $40 million in state building aid it is already slated to receive as part of a $67.2 million school building and renovation project.

Superintendent of Schools Jack Robertson said the district could receive an additional 3 percent in state building aid, as much as $1.2 million, if the building program meets energy efficiency and environmental standards set by the Collaborative for High Performance Schools.

"It would make a huge difference to us if we qualify,'' said Robertson, noting that the $6.8 million geothermal heating and cooling system that would be part of the project gives the project a leg up in accumulating the points needed to win the green school designation.

"We're looking to exceed the standards. We're doing a lot of innovative things like collecting rain water and using it to irrigate playing fields and flush toilets,'' said Robertson.

He said that Kingswood High School, which was built in 1963 and has electric heat, is not at all efficient, noting that its walls have the insulation equivalent of cardboard.

Robertson said the project will see new brick walls and a thermal barrier built around the existing buildings as well as new energy-efficient windows installed and that new technology will be used to provide for more efficient heating and cooling of school buildings.

The building project includes a new 51,000-square-foot multi-purpose building with a 900-seat auditorium, art, music and band classrooms and locker rooms. New science labs, a media center and an expanded cafeteria would be built at the 122,400-square-foot Kingswood Regional High School, which would also have a 36,000-square-foot-addition.

The Kingswood Middle School will receive a 30,000-square-foot-addition, bringing it close to 90,000 square feet.

The Region 9 Vocational Center, which is part of the Kingswood complex and also serves the Moultonborough and Prospect Mountain school districts, will increase from 36,000 to 59,000 square feet, adding new programs in auto body repair and machine tooling.

Seventy-five percent of the $10.382 million vocational center work will be paid through state building aid, with the remainder of the project eligible for 55 percent state building.

Robertson said the school district will open bids on Nov. 10 and hopes to break ground by the end of November. The first phase of the project will be the relocation of athletic fields in order to make room for the new multi-purpose building and drilling of the wells for the geothermal system.

He said a construction management firm, rather than a general contractor, will be in charge of the second phase of the project, which will require a large amount of coordination because a lot of the work will be done while school is in session.

It is expected that the project will take two and a half to three years to fully complete, but substantial completion will be accomplished in the first year.

The six-town school district, which in addition to Wolfeboro includes Tuftonboro, Ossipee, Brookfield, Effingham and New Durham, is the largest in the state in geographic area.