WCS Board Hears Report On Need To Replace $394,000 Chiller
January 9, 2019 at 6:20 p.m.
WCS Board Hears Report On Need To Replace $394,000 Chiller
By David [email protected]
The second chiller had been at WCHS since it was built in 1989, Assistant Director of Maintenance Sam Cook told the school board in Tuesday’s work session.
“Emcor, which is our energy savings contractor, they looked into it and found some errors in the design that they had through prior building projects. And one of the biggest ones was isolation valves. So we can’t take one chiller offline without taking the entire building offline,” Cook explained.
Cook said Emcor’s quote for the chiller came in at $394,440, and “then we chose to add the two- to five-year extended parts and labor.” The price includes installation. Just to repair the chiller without a warranty would have cost about $150,000.
The first chiller was purchased through the state bid list to avoid having to bid out to multiple contractors and have engineering fees, Cook said, adding that Trane provided the first chiller replacement.
The board will vote on purchasing the second chiller at its meeting Monday.
Also during the meeting:
• WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert discussed the contract for a demographer, which the board also will be asked to approve Monday. A demographer is an expert in the study of statistics relating to the changing structure of human populations.
Hoffert said the move is part of WCS’ long-range facility study.
“Susan Brudvig did our study back in 2011 and was pretty well right on with the demographic numbers. As we’re planning facilities for the future, it’s time to take a look again ... at some specific areas within our school corporation,” Hoffert said.
He said if the board approves the contract Monday, Brudvig would start working right away. She would give the board a short forecast at the February meeting, with the full study finished in March.
• Chief Academic Officer David Robertson reported on WCS elementary STEM school certification, following up the presentation he gave in December with Claypool Elementary Principal Melissa Rees and Jefferson Elementary Principal Kyle Carter, who want to see their schools become STEM certified.
Robertson gave a proposed timeline, which includes Madison becoming STEM certified by the state during the 2020-21 school year, and Jefferson in the 2021-22 school year. Claypool would turn its application in to the state in 2021-22.
Washington is already STEM certified, with Madison on its way, and Lincoln Elementary is considering STEM certification.
• Chief Analytics Officer Shelly Wilfong gave a presentation on the Indiana Department of Education’s proposed changes to Every Student Succeeds Act School Accountability 2018-19. Instead of rating schools with an A, B, C, D or F, the state will have four categories: exceeds expectations, meets expectations, approaches expectations or does not meet expectations.
She said the categories in K-8 will be assessed based on achievement and growth, achievement gaps, language proficiency progress and chronic absenteeism. The same areas will be evaluated for grades ninth through 12, as will the strength of the diploma.
“It’s that Core 40, Academics Honors diploma. They’re going to move to one diploma with distinctions within that diploma,” she said.
Chronic absenteeism at the high school “will be a big one that they’ve added,” she said. “That’s going to be quite interesting since we only have compulsory attendance until 18.”
If a student attends school 96 percent of the time, they will be considered a model attendee. If a student improves 3 percentage points from one year to the next, they will have improved attendance and that will count.
“This is just showing that attendance in school is extremely important,” Wilfong said.
• VIA Credit Union presented a check for $2,500 to the board, Leesburg Elementary School Principal Nathan Polston and Leesburg second-grade teacher Evan Overman Tuesday. The grant, which the board approved in December, will provide Lego Robotics to the Leesburg school.
Overman said he reached out to VIA’s vice president of marketing about the grant.
“They usually give a $500 grant to teachers; I said that will barely crack the project I want to do because the kits we need from Lego are significantly more than that. ... They did some discussion and came back and said ‘We’d love to, start the primary robotics at Leesburg,’” Overman said.
The second chiller had been at WCHS since it was built in 1989, Assistant Director of Maintenance Sam Cook told the school board in Tuesday’s work session.
“Emcor, which is our energy savings contractor, they looked into it and found some errors in the design that they had through prior building projects. And one of the biggest ones was isolation valves. So we can’t take one chiller offline without taking the entire building offline,” Cook explained.
Cook said Emcor’s quote for the chiller came in at $394,440, and “then we chose to add the two- to five-year extended parts and labor.” The price includes installation. Just to repair the chiller without a warranty would have cost about $150,000.
The first chiller was purchased through the state bid list to avoid having to bid out to multiple contractors and have engineering fees, Cook said, adding that Trane provided the first chiller replacement.
The board will vote on purchasing the second chiller at its meeting Monday.
Also during the meeting:
• WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert discussed the contract for a demographer, which the board also will be asked to approve Monday. A demographer is an expert in the study of statistics relating to the changing structure of human populations.
Hoffert said the move is part of WCS’ long-range facility study.
“Susan Brudvig did our study back in 2011 and was pretty well right on with the demographic numbers. As we’re planning facilities for the future, it’s time to take a look again ... at some specific areas within our school corporation,” Hoffert said.
He said if the board approves the contract Monday, Brudvig would start working right away. She would give the board a short forecast at the February meeting, with the full study finished in March.
• Chief Academic Officer David Robertson reported on WCS elementary STEM school certification, following up the presentation he gave in December with Claypool Elementary Principal Melissa Rees and Jefferson Elementary Principal Kyle Carter, who want to see their schools become STEM certified.
Robertson gave a proposed timeline, which includes Madison becoming STEM certified by the state during the 2020-21 school year, and Jefferson in the 2021-22 school year. Claypool would turn its application in to the state in 2021-22.
Washington is already STEM certified, with Madison on its way, and Lincoln Elementary is considering STEM certification.
• Chief Analytics Officer Shelly Wilfong gave a presentation on the Indiana Department of Education’s proposed changes to Every Student Succeeds Act School Accountability 2018-19. Instead of rating schools with an A, B, C, D or F, the state will have four categories: exceeds expectations, meets expectations, approaches expectations or does not meet expectations.
She said the categories in K-8 will be assessed based on achievement and growth, achievement gaps, language proficiency progress and chronic absenteeism. The same areas will be evaluated for grades ninth through 12, as will the strength of the diploma.
“It’s that Core 40, Academics Honors diploma. They’re going to move to one diploma with distinctions within that diploma,” she said.
Chronic absenteeism at the high school “will be a big one that they’ve added,” she said. “That’s going to be quite interesting since we only have compulsory attendance until 18.”
If a student attends school 96 percent of the time, they will be considered a model attendee. If a student improves 3 percentage points from one year to the next, they will have improved attendance and that will count.
“This is just showing that attendance in school is extremely important,” Wilfong said.
• VIA Credit Union presented a check for $2,500 to the board, Leesburg Elementary School Principal Nathan Polston and Leesburg second-grade teacher Evan Overman Tuesday. The grant, which the board approved in December, will provide Lego Robotics to the Leesburg school.
Overman said he reached out to VIA’s vice president of marketing about the grant.
“They usually give a $500 grant to teachers; I said that will barely crack the project I want to do because the kits we need from Lego are significantly more than that. ... They did some discussion and came back and said ‘We’d love to, start the primary robotics at Leesburg,’” Overman said.
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