PRESQUE ISLE – More than $5 million in loan funding is in place for the Presque Isle Middle School project after the SAD 1 board of directors approved two measures during its Wednesday night meeting.

The $5.3 million project to expand and renovate the existing Skyway Middle School on Skyway Street is expected to be completed by the 2005-2006 school year, in time to house the district’s entire population of sixth- to eighth-grade pupils.

Board members gave the go-ahead for the school district to borrow $1 million from the state’s Revolving Renovation Fund. The money will be used to fund construction of an auditorium at the school. The state will forgive $500,000 of the loan and allow the district to pay back the other half of the funding, interest-free, over the next 10 years.

The board also approved a bond for $4.3 million with the Maine Bond Bank. The district will pay back $215,000 per year for the next 20 years on the principal of the bond. Assistant Superintendent Jeffrey Bearden said Thursday that the district will not know the interest rate on the bond until it is issued on Oct. 28, though officials believe the rate will be about 5 percent.

The district will make its first payment, an interest-only amount that will come out of SAD 1’s 2004-2005 budget, in April 2005. The district will make its first payment on interest and principal on Nov. 1, 2005.

Bearden said the district will pay back a total of about $4.8 million for the two loans.

The Wednesday night action finalized funding for the project. Construction, however, has been under way since July after the board approved temporary funding for work at the middle school. A portion of the district’s $4.3 million bond will help pay off the $2.7 million bridge loan approved this summer by the board.

With the funding in place, SAD 1 Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said Thursday that the district will focus on moving forward.

“The funding is secure and now our main energies will be directed toward getting the building built, having it be up to our standards and staying under our budget, which we tend to do,” he said.