The Wiscasset School Committee on Monday decided 5-0 to ask selectmen to call a special town meeting for residents to vote on the department’s planned energy project and its financing. The decision followed an executive session at the school department’s central office.

“I’m very pleased and I would like to thank the committee for doing the right thing,” Board of Selectmen’s Chairman Judy Colby said when reached by phone later. Residents should vote on the project, Colby said. “It’s their tax dollars.” Selectmen recently criticized the committee for not seeking a town vote before it approved the project Dec. 15.

As for the voting format, Colby said she would prefer a ballot vote at the polls because it would get a bigger turnout than a special town meeting. But that’s something the board will need to discuss, she said. Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said she will seek to get the committee’s request on an upcoming board agenda. The board meets next on Tuesday, Jan. 17.

According to the latest, but still preliminary figures Wilmot outlined in an interview before Monday’s meeting, cumulative, 16-year savings of about $900,000 in energy costs and about $200,000 in operating costs, combined with a one-time Efficiency Maine rebate of about $91,000 would cover about $1.19 million of the $1.7 million project.

For the rebate, 2,000 LED light fixtures would need to be installed by April, Wilmot said. The project will improve lighting, heating and other aspects of students’ learning environment, and replace some systems at the central office and bus garage, department officials have said.

Final numbers would come when the loan closes; a closing has not been scheduled, Wilmot said. She has been negotiating with Androscoggin and Huntington banks. Huntington is currently offering a 3.35 percent interest rate and Androscoggin 3.67 percent on a 16-year loan, she said.

The committee entered executive session shortly before 5 p.m. with attorney Greg Im of Drummond Woodsum, the Portland law firm the department uses. The session took about an hour and a half.

Taking questions after the vote in open session, Committee Chairman Michael Dunn said members have been listening to the community and would like to give residents the chance to vote on the project he hopes will win approval. It’s too important not to, he and Wilmot said.

A special town meeting for the vote will allow residents to ask questions, Dunn said. The committee all along has sought the public’s input on the project and this decision is a further way of carrying that out, committee members said.

The project is needed and the committee will do its due diligence to convey that to voters, Dunn said.

The committee approved the project with energy contractor Siemens of Scarborough in December but a contract has not been signed, Wilmot said. The financing method as well remains to be determined by voters, as a result of the committee’s decision, she said. She supported the decision.

Asked if Siemens supported taking the step of a town vote, Wilmot said she could not inform the firm in advance for the same reasons the committee deliberated in executive session. The agenda cited MRSA Title 1, section 405 (6)(e), a state law that permits the closed-door sessions for certain consultations with legal counsel.

Siemens K-12 market manager Tom Seekins, who has represented the business at school committee meetings, wrote in a text reply Tuesday, “We’ve held all our engineering and development costs for over a year now, so we will continue to show our support for Wiscasset!”