Maintenance Director Updates School Board on Capital Projects

Daniel Prince

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Roof repairs at Monarch, Buffalo the most expensive projects to be undertaken

At Monday night’s school board meeting, Maintenance Director Mark Haney went over the Capital Needs Projects list with the board for the coming year. $80,000 is estimated to replace the long ramp that serves several mobiles behind Foster Park Elementary. Haney said he hopes that is a high estimate, but it hasn’t been put out to bid yet.

Around $25,000 will be needed to install fall protection on all docks, particularly near the cafeterias at all schools and potentially to replace some smaller stairs and ramps at individual mobile units.

$25,000 will be needed to replace the system at Buffalo Elementary where office staff buzz in visitors. He said Johnson Controls has proposed a new system on the exterior doors that would allow authorized people with a card or device to scan themselves in. He said that would be used as a pilot system that could roll out to the other schools later.

$10,000 is needed to make extensive repairs to fencing around the playground out front at Monarch and to fully enclose that area to make it more secure.

He deferred the category of technology and instruction to Tim Barnado. Dr. All asked about the status of new smart boards across the district. Barnado said they have been installed and teachers have been trained on them at all schools across the district except Sims and Foster Park. There have been supply chain issues that have slowed that process somewhat, but Barnado said everything should be installed by mid-February.

$100,000 is needed to paint the classrooms at Monarch, several mobiles at Foster Park, and some other areas around the district that will be defined later. New carpeting will be installed in the band and chorus rooms at Sims and Jonesville as well as the health room at Sims.

The district continues to replace light fixtures with LED fixtures. Haney requested a slight increase in that category, to $30,000. He said the number of work orders for burned-out bulbs has dramatically decreased since the changeover began. He called it a great investment for the district.

$6000 is requested to repair or replace detached buildings. He noted at least one that will need replacing at Monarch. Board member Mark Ivey asked if the CATE Center students might be able to take that on as a class project and build one. Haney said that was a definite possibility.

Up to $670,000 in roofing repairs and replacements will be needed at Monarch and Buffalo. He said two roofs need to be replaced at Monarch this summer, and that will complete the roofing needs at that school. It will be the same as the roofs that were replaced this summer. Buffalo Elementary School’s roof has several large blisters on the surface. That roof will need around $100,000 of extensive repair. Haney said the sooner these projects go to bid, the better, as material costs are increasing, as is the time it takes for ordered materials to come in. He said the money for the roofs will come from ESSER funds, and once complete, that should bring to an end major roof work across the district for the foreseeable future.

He said $15,000 will be needed to repair a washed-out area along the fence line at the maintenance shop and to improve the front parking lot at Foster Park Elementary. He said the area is too tight, and buses and cars tend to run over the curb and into the mulch bed and is dangerous to some of the cars parked close. He said they make it a little smaller area to allow more turning radius.

He noted Foster Park has requested awnings to be replaced in several areas. He didn’t have a price but said his department will be evaluating those.

He noted one exterior door at the high school will need to be replaced at the back at the boys JV area.

He said the transportation department plans to buy another activity bus. Finally, he said around $70,000 will be needed to replace a couple of older vehicles in the district’s fleet. One is a 1996 Ford van and the other is a 1993 Ford truck. Both have more than 200,000 miles.

They also plan to buy a new zero-turn commercial mower and a trailer to be able to haul the district’s skid steer or two mowers. He said currently they have to pay someone to bring a trailer to move the skid steer from place to place.

Board member Manning Jeter commented that the old Sims building continues to sit unused while these repairs are happening at schools across the district. Mike Cohen said he agreed that the district has let it sit for too long. Superintendent Joey Haney said that at a previous board meeting, the board had voted to market the building, and the county and a developer is looking at it to create multi-family housing.

Jeter also said he wanted a report on how much was spent on clean air systems at the schools. Haney said ESSER funds were used, and he would get with the vendor to get the prices and see if it fell under district procurement exemptions.