The Highlands School Board on Monday will consider $3.2 million in safety upgrades that would impact all four campuses.
Dan Engen, from DRAW Collective architectural firm, presented design options to the board during its agenda meeting Tuesday night. Work ranges from HVAC to paving to new water coolers.
“There is a small amount of work at each building and the idea is to combine it into a single project,” Engen said. “We want to cherry-pick what’s most needed from the district’s long-term plan to get it done the soonest.”
If approved, work would begin this year.
Projects include safety upgrades and other minor construction.
At the high school, there are plans to upgrade the heating and air conditioning, repair crumbled sidewalks and replace water coolers with hygienic bottle fillers.
There also is a project already underway to fix a storm sewer that runs behind the high school, down to Natrona.
Superintendent Monique Mawhinney said the capital projects, except the sewer pipe repair, would be covered by money received through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) program.
The federal American Rescue Plan Act provided
$122.7 billion in supplemental ESSER funding to districts across the country to address learning loss, enhance after school activities and provide summer learning, among other items.
Major pool issues
The school board on Tuesday also heard options for pool repairs at the high school.
The facility is closed for the season after structural problems caused it to leak significant amounts of water and run up maintenance bills.
Engen pinpointed the problem to the lower portion of the pool tub. He said the board could consider removing and replacing the tile around the bottom portion.
“We would basically go
4 feet down and strip that, then provide a water shield to solve the leakage,” he said.
Cost would be about $250,000.
A full modernization of the aquatics facility would top
$2 million.
Mawhinney said any pool construction would not be completed in the first phase of work.
Elsewhere in the district, the project would target repairs to waterlines at the middle school and duct work in the elementary school auditorium.
Contractors would also upgrade degraded concrete at the elementary school entrance, Engen said.
At the Early Childhood Center, work would include replacing an air handling unit.
All of the buildings will get new bottle-filling water fountains.
Tawnya Panizzi is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tawnya at 724-226-7726, tpanizzi@triblive.com or via Twitter .
