Warsaw School Board Hears About Work At Lakeview

Performance Services Inc. gave the Warsaw School Board an update on phase one of the guaranteed energy savings project at Lakeview Middle School.
In September, the board approved a bid from PSI, which allowed the school corporation to engage with PSI in the development of the specifics of a guaranteed energy savings contract.
Tony Kuykendall, business development manager with PSI, on Monday said PSI wanted to make sure the board was clear of what PSI wanted to do over at Lakeview.
After the meeting in September, PSI worked on designs and finalize drawings, as well as get those plans out to contractors and suppliers. They also walked the job site with all interested bidders. There were 28 different bidding projects that were bidded out and 35 contractors and 32 suppliers that responded to the project. Kuykendall said the labor market hasn’t been easy the last couple years, so when PSI cast out a wide net for bidders, they wanted to make sure they included local contractors as well.
To show the board why PSI was doing the work, Kuykendall showed the board a presentation slide with equipment at Lakeview with the piece of equipment’s useful life expectancy, year the equipment was installed and how much useful life expectancy the equipment has left.
One example was there are two boilers at the school, with one being installed in 2003 and the other being installed in 2008. There is a 25-year useful life expectancy for the boilers. There are three years left of useful life remaining for the boiler installed in 2003 and eight for the one installed in 2008. There were several pieces of equipment that were beyond their useful life expectancy, like 23 classroom unit ventilators, two classroom chillers, some energy recovery units and some exhaust fans.
Jerry Rolfson, director of architecture at PSI, talked about what PSI was planning at Lakeview. The main focus of the work will be at the central plant. On the west side of the building, a mechanical yard will be built, where equipment will be consolidated and added to.
Work will be done in the gym. Some of the work will include a structural frame in the east and west walls to stabilize the walls. A section of bleachers will be removed and putting into a mechanical mezzanine.
Roof work will be done, including replacing skylights.
There will be work done in the school’s tunnels.
Board member Brad Johnson asked if any asbestos was found in the tunnels. Rolfson said tests were done to detect if there was any and the tests came back negative.
A walk-in freezer on the school grounds also needs to be moved.
Rolfson said there will be some work that will start in the spring, including relocating the walk-in freezer. The majority of the work at Lakeview will be done during the summer.
In other business, the board:
• Heard a presentation about the Unified Sports program.
Maria Demopoulos said Unified Sports is a combination of individuals with and without disabilities competing at the same time. It combines IHSAA and Special Olympics rules during games and is there to support inclusion.
The two sports involved in Unified Sports are flag football and track and field.
Coaches Ryan Bricker and Stavrani Christos shared observations of how the program was meaningful for students.
Jason Slabach, parent to two students who are or have participated in Unified Sports, talked about the impact the program had on his sons. Students Eva Demopoulos and Beau Goshert talked about their perspective on the program. Athlete Ben Slabach said he made friends while participating in flag football.
• Heard a presentation about the Jefferson Elementary School First LEGO League team, the Legendary Spartans.
Coach Jennifer Long introduced the team and talked about what was involved. The Legendary Spartans went to the FLL Regional Competition in Kokomo and the FLL Semi-State Competition. The team won the Core Values Award at regionals. They won 235 points at the semi-state competition, but did not advance to the state competition.
Team members are Jackson Watson, Connor Couture, Caiden Beeler, Simon Getty, Dallas Condict, Connor Terpstra and Owen Hagenbuch.
• Had the first reading for several policy updates.
Chief Financial Officer Stephen Boyer said the updates includes some replacements, revisions and recisions to consolidate and modernize the corporation’s antidiscrimination and antiharassment policies for students and employees.
Board President Heather Reichenbach said the first reading was just for the board’s information and they will vote on the policy updates in January.