HOWLAND – State police are pursuing several leads following a Monday night incident in which vandals caused thousands of dollars in damage to the Hichborn Middle School.

In the mess discovered by a janitor at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, the vandals used spray paint, paintball guns and fire extinguishers to deface a significant portion of the school and the gymnasium it shares with Penobscot Valley High School, according to Trooper Tom Fiske.

Apparently, the group entered a window on the backside of the middle school by pushing in an air conditioner, he said.

The vandals moved through classrooms and hallways, spray-painting walls and computers, destroying equipment and personal items and discharging fire extinguishers on the recently revarnished gymnasium floor, Fiske said.

Derogatory comments about teachers were spray-painted in a number of areas, he said.

On the outside, windows were shot out with paintball guns, rooftop vent covers were damaged and a large rooftop compressor was dislodged and dropped 20 feet, he said.

“It looks like they spent a lot of time and effort to accomplish all that destruction,” Fiske said. “It was just a humongous mess.”

Police spent most of Tuesday at the school gathering evidence and have generated a number of leads, Fiske said.

“[The culprits] were very sloppy and left a lot of evidence behind,” Fiske said.

In addition to profanities directed toward Principal Bruce Carter, the vandal or vandals spray-painted “Goodbye junior high” on the gymnasium scoreboard, alluding to the possibility that the culprits may have graduated recently from the middle school.

If apprehended, suspects would probably face burglary and criminal mischief charges, Fiske said. Theft may be included later as an empty laptop bag was discovered outside the school. With the teachers on vacation, he was unable to confirm if such equipment was missing.

Should the culprits turn out to be students, the school plans to work very closely with law enforcement in terms of punishment, Principal Carter said Wednesday.

“At the very least, we’d be looking at restitution and probably some type of community service,” Carter said.

For now, the school is focusing on next Wednesday, when a five-person professional crew from Bangor is expected to have all of the vandalism cleaned up, Carter said.

School will begin less than a week later. Clean-up costs will be paid for by insurance, although they have yet to be determined, he said.

“I can imagine it’s going to be a healthy bill,” Carter said.

The school isn’t anticipating any drastic security changes and would like to remain open for public use outside of school hours, he said. Local groups hold meetings there and adults often walk inside during the winter.

“We’re a small, rural community and most of the town is up in arms about this,” Carter said. “As well they should be.”

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Trooper Fiske at the Orono barracks of the Maine State Police at 866-2121.