EW school board approves $9.5 million in HVAC renovations

By: 
Staff Writer Kate Wehlann

Superintendent Dennis Stockdale presents the school's HVAC project to those gathered for the 1028 hearing on Tuesday evening.

During their meeting on Tuesday, April 24, the East Washington school board held a 1028 hearing before approving two resolutions, each detailing their desire to move forward with a total of $9.5 million in HVAC renovations.

"When we talked about the HVAC project, the need for that was pretty apparent," said Superintendent Dennis Stockdale. "There was humidity, maintenance issues, worn-out systems. The elementary system was having problems with size issues. We took all that into consideration."

He said one thing the school looked into when deciding on the system they needed was energy efficiency.

"That's important because with our solar project, we still have to buy about 15 percent or so of our energy from Duke," he said. "That energy is based off of usage from our current HVAC systems. Hopefully by doing this project, we can tag team with our solar and reduce the amount we'll have to buy and get as close to being as off-grid as the school corporation can be."

Classroom climate was another issue. Stockdale said humidity in the buildings is a big problem and simply patching problems can't keep up anymore.

"If you look into our classrooms, you'll see ceiling tiles that are curled, artwork that runs, so we wanted to look at that," he said. "We're also done with band-aids. One thing when we talked to people in the community, one of the things I heard was 'No more band-aids.' Fix it right and let's have some long-term solutions."

The newer system will be easier to control remotely and be easier to maintain. Because of the additions over time that have been made to the buildings, Stockdale said the school needed a hybrid system.

"We wanted to make sure we had a system that would fix the problem in all parts of the school, not one that would just fix most of it," he said.

The school will focus on the elementary school first. That system will cost $4,294,000 and, with estimated cost of bond issuance, the total will come to $4.5 million. Then focus will shift to the high school and middle school system, which will cost $4,778,000, with the estimated cost of bond issuance bringing to total to $5 million. The school is bonding both projects at the same time to take advantage of around $175,000 in cost savings.

But how much will it cost taxpayers?

Stockdale said the school has worked hard to make the impact on taxpayers as limited as possible.

"You have to advertise high to make sure you get all the money you need to fund the project," said Stockdale. "That would mean an increase in the debt service rate of about 10¢; however, that's the maximum the number is going to be."

That translates into an increase of $70 per year for a homeowner with property valued at $170,000.40. Farm ground would cost $2 an acre, per year. Stockdale said a more accurate, practical number would be closer to an 8 cent increase, which would be even less of an impact.

However, the impact may not be as severe as that.

The school plans to adjust the amount needed in other tax-based funds (capital projects, transportation and bus replacement) to keep the taxpayer impact lower.

Stockdale said, with the school's plan, the increase to taxpayers would likely be only around 4 cents.

"We have some flexibility," he said, "to be able to improve that depending on assessed valuation, and what's going on, but in terms of that project, we're going to move into that range."

Stockdale said he knew when he was hired, he had an idea the school would need to embark on an expensive project like this.

"You see the rate back in 2016 was about $1.02, $1.03," he said, gesturing to a graph on the display screen in the administration meeting room. "If you remember, my first year, we reduced it to 99 cents and we held it at 99 cents for two years. Knowing we would have to do something, I wanted to keep the decrease as long as I could. When we bring the debt on in 2019, what we're doing is we're taking the rate back to 2015 levels. This isn't something we've never had in the past."

For the next ten years, Stockdale said, the school will remain consistent and in year 11, there will be room in case there is a need to take on more debt.

"I don't know what that would be," said Stockdale. "The facilities are in great shape. Our maintenance crews and custodial crews are doing an outstanding job. The building has been added onto for about 400 students more than we have now, so in terms of needing more classroom space or another build, that's probably not in a long-term plan unless there's some sort of event that results in more growth."

Stockdale said the next thing that would be a big cost to the school would be roofs.

"We're out to about 2027, 2028 before we start having to think about a major roof repair," he said. "We're leaving room because one thing we heard was about long-range plans. Whoever is sitting my my seat or whoever is sitting in these board seats, we can refer back to this as a benchmark as how we want to manage the tax rate moving forward."

Stockdale said the school intends to hold onto a stable amount in the Bus Replacement Fund and Transportation Funds, but will reduce the amount in the Capital Projects Fund in 2019 and keep it low for flexibility.

"I feel like one of the things that cost us a ton of money every year to get ready to open up the school is our HVAC systems," he said. "We can take and divert some of the dollars we have in CPF and roll that in to offset debt service to keep that rate constant."

After January, the way schools fund themselves will change. Schools will have only two funds: education and operating funds, giving more flexibility in the three funds that aren't controlled by the enrollment.

"We can only control what goes on at school and the projects we do," he said. "We can't control what goes on in the county. If we're aware of certain things that will go on in the county or certain projects that are coming up, we can help out from our end in terms of the school rate and how we're managing that."

He said accumulating funds may also get easier with this change as well.

So what's the bottom line?

"If you're going to have a home of $150,000, your annual increase will be $31.12, roughly," said Stockdale. "Farm ground, instead of $2 an acre, you're down to 88 cents, I believe.

"Our goal is to do the most we can to get it fixed, but also be cognizant of the taxpayers who pay money and there's a lot of outside influences," he added.

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