PHILLIPS – Deputies are investigating an estimated $15,000 in damage to the Phillips Primary School building owned by the town.

“There was extensive damage throughout the building,” Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Turcotte said.

The break-in was reported Tuesday and is believed to have happened over the weekend, or at least within the last two weeks, he said.

The school, which is on Main Street, has been vacant since it was temporarily closed in June 2002.

Phillips residents voted in February to officially close the building and it was later turned over to the town.

It appears the person or people responsible for the vandalism entered through a window on the side of the building that had been pried open, Turcotte said.

About one-third of the ceiling tiles in the building wore torn down and wiring was ripped out in various rooms throughout the building and ceiling tiles were thrown against the interior walls of the building, Turcotte said.

In addition, a tool was used to take down all the light fixtures and light bulbs were smashed, he said.

Turcotte is being assisted in the investigation by Detective Tom White and Cpl. Steve Charles.

Deputies are asking for anybody who may have seen a suspicious person or suspicious activity around the building recently to call the Sheriff’s Department at 778-2680.

dperry@sunjournal.com