REGION 16 — If everything goes as planned, most of Woodland Regional High School will have air conditioning when the new school year starts in the fall.
The Region 16 Board of Education, which oversees schools in Beacon Falls and Prospect, last week awarded a $537,000 contract to MJ Daly of Waterbury to install air conditioning in five of nine air handling units at the school. The five units cover areas where students are, like classrooms.
When Woodland was built in the early 2000s, the duct work was constructed to accept air conditioning but air conditioning wasn’t installed in the entire building. Common areas in the school, like the gym, cafeteria and auditorium, have air conditioning now.
The temperature in the science wing on the third floor can rise to 100 degrees or higher on hot days. Board Vice Chair Priscilla Cretella said the third floor was 103 degrees on a day she stopped by the school last year.
Cretella, who was on the school board when Woodland was built, said the decision was made at the time to forego air conditioning the entire school in order to build the pool. She said doing both would have gone over what voters approved to spend on the school.
Six companies bid on the project. MJ Daly bid $548,600 and Action Air Systems, Inc. of Manchester was the lowest bidder at $537,000.
Superintendent of Schools Michael Yamin said each bid was vetted, and MJ Daly and Action Air Systems were interviewed. He said officials were more comfortable going with MJ Daly, which has done work in the region before. He said MJ Daly agreed to match the low bid.
“We know them. They’re local,” board Chair Robert Hiscox said.
The bid specifications for the project state the region reserves the right to negotiate changes to an original bid “which may be deemed to be in the best interests” of the district.
The region has set aside about $480,000 in the capital non-recurring account for the project. Last week, the board also approved transferring $120,000 from the contingency account for the work, bringing the total for the project to about $600,000.
Director of Finance and Business Operations Pamela Mangini said the additional funds will cover possible change orders and contingency for the project.
In November, the school board transferred about $939,000 from projected savings in various accounts to contingency to cover cuts in state education funding to Beacon Falls and Prospect.
Last week’s transfer leaves about $819,000 in the contingency fund. Yamin said the state cuts totaled about $700,000, so there is enough left in contingency to cover the cuts.
Mangini said officials are confident they can absorb the cuts and adhere to the promise made to the towns to make up for the lost state aid.
Yamin said design work for the air conditioning should begin in April and work is slated to begin in June. The hope, he said, is for the work to be finished by the first day of school in August.
Yamin said adding air conditioning to the third floor of the school and part of the first floor are the priority for the first phase of the project.
If there is money left over, the district will continue with the work. Officials plan to install air conditioning to the other four air handling units in the second and third phases of the project. Overall, the entire project is expected to cost about $740,000.
