Eastern Schools Ready to Address Heatng and AC Needs

  
   Members of the Eastern Howard School Board Corp. and others present at a recent board meeting heard messages from several school staff concerning problems encountered with the heating and air conditioning systems in both the elementary and junior/senior high buildings.  One teacher said that if the air conditioning is turned off in her room, someone must go up on the roof to restart it.  Another told about the need to take the cover off the unit in her room to make adjustments with an “L” wrench.  She must manually turn it off and on all day in order to keep the room at an acceptable temperature.  A teacher at the jr/sr building reported that the spaces in the outside vent are so large that, in winter, cold air blows into the room.  The elementary school had to cancel school once in the winter of 2010-2011 because there was no heat in the cafeteria.
   The administration and board has been aware of these problems for a number of years but was waiting for some debt to drop off before adding debt stemming from these needed projects.  The board has contracted with EMCOR Group, which presented results of a study and plans for the upgrade at the June 12 board meeting.  Representatives of EMCOR explained that different systems were installed with various renovations and additions.  Several are quite inefficient by current standards.  In addition, the corporation has spent $378,000 since January 2008 on maintenance of the current systems.  Funding is recommended to be by a building corporation bond issue and will have no tax impact to taxpayers.  The total amount of the bond will be $4 million.  Supt. Tracy Caddell states, “This is the first part of a long term plan as this first $4 million will not finish the HVAC needs of the corporation.  The board and administration will reevaluate the debt again once this project is done to see if we can do more without increasing the tax levy. Right now we are being told we will be able to do much more but these are still tough economic times and the board wants to be sure that there is no increase in taxes. To do everything so that both buildings have a complete HVAC system is estimated at $12 million. This is only a start to a plan to completely replace both systems as long as we can do so without a tax increase.”
   EMCOR stated that they use local contractors as much as possible.  They also do no “change orders.”  If the project can be done for less than $4 million, there will also be work done on other areas of need, the phone system, the roof, and the swimming pool. 
   A special meeting of the school board has been called for July 19, at 7:30 a.m. at the corporation offices for the final vote on the HVAC project.
   The board will meet at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 10, for the annual re-organization meeting.