The Greensburg Salem School Board is considering an update of the district’s high school locker room facilities and bringing air conditioning to classrooms at the middle school and Amos K. Hutchinson Elementary.
The board’s April 13 agenda will include a request for quotes for the locker room improvements.
“We should get an architectural firm in here to help with the locker room renovation, to make sure everything is up to code,” President Jeff Metrosky said at this week’s discussion meeting.
He said the locker room renovation is long overdue, noting it was last updated in 1992.
“We’ve talked about improving that area, and we kept pushing it off and pushing it off,” he said. “It will benefit all the students at the high school, through (physical education) classes and the athletic teams.”
Heat cancelled classes
Athletic Director Frank Sundry will lead a planning team for the locker room project. Karl Spudy, the district’s coordinator of institutional facilities, maintenance and grounds, will oversee the air conditioning improvements.
“It wasn’t too long ago that we actually cancelled school because it was too hot on the third and second floors of (the middle school),” Metrosky said.
Spudy said the district initially thought the new air conditioning at the middle school would have to be limited to the third floor, but he “found a way to also air condition the second floor for a reasonable amount of money. If I put coils into the air handlers, two of the units, I can air condition the second and third floor and use the existing equipment that’s in the basement.”
Spudy said he believes the district can provide air conditioning for all areas at Hutchinson Elementary by duplicating systems that are in place at the Nicely and Metzgar elementary schools.
“We have a two-pipe system,” he explained. “We run hot water through it in the wintertime and chilled water in the summertime.”
Spudy noted chiller units at Nicely and Metzgar date from 1967.
“They’re well past their time of expiration,” he said. “In the next two to three years, we need to address the chiller before we lose it.”
While air conditioning equipment has been updated in the auditorium and office areas at the high school, extending the cooling system to its classrooms is being studied, Spudy said.
Meanwhile, Trinity Automated Solutions is working to install new HVAC controls at all district schools. That work is “well on its way,” Spudy said. “The middle school is almost 85% done.”
Trinity’s $3.8 million contract is being covered by funding the district received through the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) program.
Superintendent Ken Bissell said the air conditioning improvements would be paid for through the district’s capital fund.
“We’re fortunate to have a surplus, where we can do these things and not borrow money,” Metrosky said.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff at 724-836-6622, jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .
