The Glen Lake Board of Education hosted a community event Friday featuring tours of schools infrastructure in efforts to gain steam for a possible millage in November.
Several members of the board and representatives of the Christman Company engineering firm were in attendance to show people Glen Lake’s aging infrastructure.
The school wanted to display the school’s aging 50-year old boilers, outdated classrooms, among other projects that could be supported in a millage come November.
“Isn’t just the boilers though. All the unit ventilators, all the air handlers, everything is dated to that portion of the building. So everything is old,” Glen Lake Facilities Director Robert Bufka said. “The biggest issue (with the boilers) is efficiency. (The boilers are) cleaned up every year like your car is, and they’re running as best they can. How efficient that is.”
Infrastructure in nearly three quarters of the building needs replacement as Glen Lake would like to change from heating the building with steam to heating with hot water. Bufka said hot water is a more efficient system, and the current piping that transfers the hot steam is old and corroded.
“The school district needs to be responsible for the students they’re taking care of and that we want to be proactive and replace that before it’s at the end of its life. We don’t want it to die when there’s no money to replace it because it’s getting close,” Senior Vice President Daniel Lamore said. “(The boilers) actually already passed the manufacturers suggested useful life … What would you do if the boiler died in the winter and there’s no bond issue. No money to pay for that would be a serious Most of Glen Lake’s piping infrastructure that leads from the boiler to classroom heating units are under classroom floors. With construction of a new system, that piping would be abandoned due to cost to replace.
“(This classroom heating unit) is probably 30-years old, far less costly than the boiler, but needs replacement,” Lamore said. “Since we’re converting from steam to hot water, all the piping coming from the boiler to here needs to be replaced with different types in some parts of the building.”
The issue has become more and more pressing over recent years, and even with a millage passed the infrastructure could take years to be upgraded to a modern heating and cooling system, according to Lamore.
“They sure aren’t gonna get it done in one summer. So you have to figure out which parts of the building you’re gonna work on. If you’re gonna have kids coming in to go to school,” he said.
Other aspects of the tours were outdated classrooms, specifi cally elementary classrooms. When the school board imagines modernizing the school, think about the current media center and library.
“(Updated classrooms) coincides with educational models. They want more natural light, they want to be more comfortable with climate control, more outlets in the classrooms, and better bathrooms,” he said.
The school would prioritize a new HVAC system if a bond passes in the fall.
Safety and security is at the forefront of the school board’s mind and they are hoping to move forward with secured entrance reconstruction this summer without any funding from a bond issue. Approval of secure entrances is expected to be passed in the upcoming months but it is not for sure.
Glen Lake window projects that were purchased, and expected to be installed last summer can hopefully come to fruition this summer, according to Christman.
