“We have been working for the past five years to address these issues as we look for the most cost-effective and efficient way to address them for the long run,” said Don Burley, the school district’s director of operations.
Burley said the Diaken Systems that provide heating and cooling in the classrooms have continued to fail.
While the units have been in repair or not working, the district has used supplemental heating systems that provide additional heat to the classrooms, including radiant heat in the ceiling and closing outside air dampers on the larger air handlers to send supplemental recirculating warm air to the classrooms.
“Although not ideal, we have been able to maintain temperatures above 64 degrees in all areas, with many areas in the upper 60s,” Burley said. “The supplemental systems are not built for full heating but as a partnership with the other systems to maintain proper temperature in classroom areas. We are also experiencing significantly colder than normal temps, which has contributed to the challenges in the building.”
Five years ago, Burley said they developed a Capital Improvement Plan to replace the systems “in order of the most costly to maintain and troublesome first” because it wasn’t financially responsible to continue repairing systems that fail.
The district fully replaced the three most troublesome systems in 2021, including piping, duct work and controls, and said they have experienced little to no issues with the new Mitsubishi Systems. These were replaced using federal COVID-19 relief funds under the ESSER program. Since then, they have replaced four other systems and “continue to see success and very few service calls.”
When removing these replaced Diaken systems, officials saved all working parts, compressors, controls and other items to be used to keep the remaining systems running without having to pay for parts that would need to be replaced, Burley said.
“We have been able to use these parts from the other units to keep the remaining units up and running. But a month ago, the system by the art room failed, and we do not have any used parts onsite to repair it,” he said, explaining they were hoping to not replace that system until the 2026-27 year.
However, they decided to replace the failing system right away, and the new system and parts are on order. Installation is slated to begin in the next two weeks. All work will be done after school and on weekends so there are no disturbances during the educational process.
The district will be left with one Diaken unit to replace, and will “continue to prioritize” HVAC replacements and upgrades to avoid heat and air issues in the future.
About the Author
