Climate Control

I want to continue the 'series' started last week that highlights some of items that are included in our annual 'Topics' newsletter. Again, you can get a your copy of the annual newsletter by clicking here. Last week, you may recall was focused on parking at the high school, particularly related to what students can expect during construction. I want to continue with the construction theme this week by talking about what our students and employees will experience inside the building during the upcoming school year. 

As we make final preparations for the start of school, and really for the duration of the entire school year I would encourage patience and flexibility on everyone's part. There really is no way around it: Our students and employees will be living in a construction zone this school year. The entire inside of the building is being remodeled: carpet, windows, painting, ceiling, and light fixtures are all being replaced. But that is only part of the story. Other rooms are having walls removed or moved and physical locations of long time spaces are being relocated. We have been working incredibly hard over the course of the last several months to make sure all the demolition is complete before the students arrive in a few weeks. One point that I have continually made with our contractors is that we can not have a jack hammer in operation while students are trying to learn. It just won't work. The bottom line though, is the volume of work that needs to be completed on the inside of the building alone just simply can't be finished over the course of one summer. To this point, the majority of classrooms along the west and north of the building should (emphasis added) be finished by the time school starts. Moving forward, our strategy will be to complete two rooms at a time over the course of the year. This will no doubt cause a logistic challenge as students may have class in one location one week, and then have that class move to a different location the next. We are working very hard to minimize disruptions to the regular school day, but it will be noticeable. 

That is what you are going to see, but you also have to be prepared for what you are going to feel. A big update to the building will be the replacement of the HVAC system. As discussed incessantly during our run up to the election last fall, the air conditioning system has reached end of life and the heat pumps that are currently in operation are obsolete. Replacement parts don't exist so therefore the entire system is going to be replaced. Unfortunately, that work won't commence until next summer. At the same time though, the footings and foundation for the new addition go right through the location of where the current cooling tower resides. So sometime soon, well before the start of the school year begins the cooling tower will be removed. That means we won't have air conditioning in the high school this fall. I suppose I shouldn't have picked a day in July when the heat index is expected to top 100 degrees to share that little tidbit of information! Because of this, you should not be surprised if we need to dismiss school early this fall during extreme hot spells. Keep in mind that weather related cancellations impact the entire district! In other words, we won't just dismiss the high school: we'll dismiss all students. The new system is scheduled to arrive sometime this winter and we anticipate it will be up and running this spring. 

In the short term we should anticipate some inconvenience and perhaps even a bit of discomfort. In the long term though, we'll have a building and learning environment that will epitomize 21st century learning that we will all be incredibly proud of!