EBOE discusses masks, capital projects at work session

The Enterprise City Schools Board of Education held its first work session since 2019 on March 23 and discussed the school’s policy on masks along with the upcoming HVAC and window replacements at a number of schools.

Enterprise Superintendent Greg Faught asked for input from the board on what their thoughts were about whether or not the school should retain its mask mandate even when the state’s expires next month.

“I’m all for continuing to follow the CDC recommendations,” board member Steven Duke said. “There’s six weeks of school let, in my opinion why risk it by changing it? There’s no sense in having an issue right there at the end.”

Fellow board members Rodrick Caldwell and Marty Williams agreed with Duke’s assessment. Faught also agreed with it.

“The numbers have been encouraging lately and I think the masks help (prevent) the spread of COVID-19,” Faught said. “I’m a little concerned about Spring Break and what’s going on down in Florida right now. I talked to local physicians and one at the state level and they all strongly recommend that our students and teachers continue to wear masks at least through the school year.”

The board also discussed the upcoming HVAC and window replacements in the school system. The school was preparing to use money received from the state’s capital projects bond – which does not need to be paid back – to pay for new HVAC systems and window replacements at both Dauphin Junior High and Pinedale Elementary School along with new windows at Harrand Creek Elementary and Rucker Boulevard Elementary. Unfortunately, the bid for those projects came in more than $700,000 over what the board had budgeted construction budget.

The total budget for this project is $1.7 million with a construction budget of $1,434,588. The lowest construction bid that the school system received was $2,155,400.

Rather than overspending – and possibly risking the funding for some of the other projects planned to be paid for with the bond from the state –Enterprise City Schools Chief Financial Officer Pam Christian came up with another option.

Christian suggested using funds that the school was awarded from ESSER II, which is a COVID-19 related grant from the state that allows for facility renovations that meet certain qualifications. Money from ESSER II can be used to pay for HVAC systems as long as they include a UV-light component in the systems that helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the schools.

That extra component will add an additional $35,000 to the project but it will allow the school system to split the HVAC replacements away from the window replacements. So, the board would use $960,000 from the Esser II money to pay for the HVAC replacements, and then use $1,230,400 of the funds from the bond initially planned for both projects. The school system will then have the chance to have the remaining $264,588 for other projects on the capital plan if/when those come back over budget.

Caldwell asked Maintenance Supervisor Matt Routley how imperative it is to make these upgrades now or if it is possible to wait.

“The windows at Harrand Creek have been deteriorating since the building was built, they’re pretty much rotten now,” Routley said. “The ones at Pinedale, Dauphin and Rucker (Boulevard) are the old single-pane uninsulated window that are not energy efficient. Some of them have leaks and we try to repair them as best we can.

“The HVAC at Dauphin is 30 years old and the one at Pinedale is about 27 or 28 years old. The life expectancy for those units are 12-15 years, so we’ve gotten about double the life expectancy out of them. It’s getting difficult to find parts for them and it’s becoming an issue where we can’t kick the can down the road very much further. We planned on replacing these three or four years ago. I think we’ve kicked that can about as far as we can.”

The board will hold its next regular called meeting on April 13 at 5 p.m. in the central office’s boardroom.