Nearly five months after hiring an energy savings company to help the district tackle an overhaul of its facilities, the Greensburg Salem School Board will vote next week on the first phase of renovations.
Though the district has made minor improvements at its schools in recent years, its last major remodel took place more than three decades ago.
Greensburg Salem High School was remodeled in 1992 and the middle school was last renovated in 1979 — nearly 80 years after it was built. Nicely and Metzgar elementary schools were built in 1968 and have never been renovated.
Greensburg Salem hired TEN, The Energy Efficient Network, in August to audit the district’s five school buildings and athletic complex and identify facility upgrades that could save the district money.
After working with the district’s facilities planning committee, TEN consultants presented to the school board a proposal for the first round of renovations.
The projects would be completed this summer.
The proposal of nearly $28,700 will be paid for with grant funding and the district’s capital improvement budget.
It focuses on Hutchinson Elementary, which was built in 1992, and the high school.
TEN proposed upgrading the high school’s fitness center — installing a new roof, doors, windows and light fixtures — and purchasing water conserving toilets, urinals and faucets for the school’s bathrooms.
A $377,000 grant the district previously received from the state will help with the roof replacement.
Proposed projects at Hutchinson include installing new ceilings, flooring, lights and making the bathrooms compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The proposal also included creation of a secure front entrance at Hutchinson that would hold visitors in an enclosed area before they are cleared to enter the building.
Though the district does not have the budget to make this change at each of its schools this year, Superintendent Ken Bissell said the administration is looking at how it can make the school building entrances more secure.
“We are looking at every single building and the entrance at every building for next year to secure them,” he said. “So even if the work isn’t in this scope, we are going to look administratively at what we can do at the building to better secure that.”
TEN also proposed upgrading the window glass in Hutchinson’s kindergarten classrooms, said TEN Consultant Joe Parris.
While visiting the school on a 70-degree day, Parris said temperatures reached 85 degrees in the kindergarten classrooms in the absence of air conditioning units. He said the window glass creates a greenhouse effect, increasing the temperature in the classrooms.
“Film was applied to these (windows),” Parris said, noting the film was meant to help regulate temperatures in the kindergarten classrooms. “But the actual film was put on the inside of the window, which makes it actually hotter on the inside.”
Replacing the window glass will help the district save on energy costs when it is eventually able to install air conditioning units in the classrooms, Parris said.
The school board will vote on the proposal at its next meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. on Jan. 15 at the middle school, 301 N. Main St. in Greensburg.