After three classrooms flooded this year at Eagle Valley Middle School, updating the heating and cooling system there has become a priority for the school district.
Mark Korinek, director of operations for the Carson City School District, hopes that voters will pass the 10-year rollover bond proposed in November's election, to help fund the upgrades.
Even if the bond doesn't pass, the school's 56 boilers will need to be replaced at a cost of about $500,000. However, without the bond money, the district will have to pass on other projects to fund the upgrades.
"We're going to have to take capital projects money to replace them," Korinek said. "That means something else that's in line for capital projects is going to get bumped, and we'll have to keep doing that.
"Sooner or later, you're at the end of the line."
That's why, Korinek said, bond money is so critical. It will help the district upgrade outdated systems to save operating money, which
can then be used in the
classroom.
"The newer units that are going in operate 40 percent more efficiently," he said. "In about five to eight years, we'll see a return on our investment."
In the meantime, Korinek said, the district can't wait to make the repairs, which will cost around $10,000.
"To me, it's worth it," he said. "Especially upstairs, if anything breaks up here and it starts seeping through, it's going to do a lot more damage."
The heat pumps installed in each classroom when the school was built in 1984 are starting to fail.
"They're just old. They're outdated," said Korinek. "They were the best things at the time."
School board trustees voted in March to pursue a rollover bond issue at 43 cents per $100 of a home's assessed value. It would fund about $45 million worth of projects during the next 10 years.
The current rate is 47 cents. However, the 4-cent difference would be absorbed by city taxing entities, likely the city itself, which could add about $600,000 a year to the city's budget.
The first $25 million would go to projects deemed high priority to begin next year.
It includes a list of maintenance projects, site upgrades and improved efficiencies at almost all schools ranging from roof repairs to replacing portable classrooms and modernizing heating and air-conditioning systems.
The second phase is slated for $10 million to be completed in 2013-2014. The focus of this phase will be on educational programs.
An outside agency would conduct a study to determine how to best improve career and technical education as well as performing arts.
It also would look into the needs of Pioneer High School and the best way to help the alternative school expand and serve its population.
The third phase would run the remaining six years of the 10-year cycle, funneling about $500,000 per year into technology upgrades.