NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa. by: John Gerow (RVO) – Even though the water receded, and the cleanup is done, damage from the July 19th flood continues to plague the Redbank Valley School District. School Board members spent more an hour at their Thursday evening work session discussing options for repairing the heating system at the Elementary school. Individual room heating/cooling units have to be cleaned, or replaced and their electrical components checked for water damage. There was no damage to the boiler or the hot water delivery lines, and it is not clear how much damage there has been to the individual room units.

Representatives of Combustion Services and Johnson Controls were at Thursday evening’s meeting to answer questions about the bids presented by their respective companies. Combustion Services has presented a bid to replace all room units and to update the components, including the computer and software to run the heating system.  Johnson Controls has offered a different approach for the Board’s consideration. Their plan is to go through the building and clean, test, repair and replace components as needed.

Both Combustion Services and Johnson Controls will “guarantee” heat in every room every day during the repair or replacement process. This guarantee of heat is important as it will apparently take 6 – 18 weeks for the units to be assembled after they are ordered. Combustion Services said that would take 6-8 weeks for delivery and Johnson said 16-18 weeks. This disparity in delivery time was only the first major difference in the two presentations.

In the of the discussion, the company reps suggested that there were not shut-off valves on the individual room heating units. Shut-off valves would allow hot water to be turned off to any room allowing for removal or repair of a unit without draining the entire system. The two contractors had different plans for dealing with this issue. Joe Price, from Combustion Service, told the Directors that his company would come in and install two shut-off valves for each unit. This would allow them to turn the water off to any room as they are replacing the units. Lou Gore from Johnson Controls said that their plan would be to turn off and drain the system every evening and refill and bleed it before morning. Later in the discussion, Mr. Jim Jones, District Maintenance Supervisor, said that there actually were shut-off valves on the room units.

Director Dee Bell, who works in plumbing and heating led the question sessions. Mr. Bell seemed concerned that neither representative could answer specific questions about their system. He was also concerned about Johnson Controls’ suggestion of draining the entire system every night. Dr. Mastillo questioned the feasibility of nightly draining and the amount of water that would be needed to refill the system daily. Director Jason Barnett questioned if the new controls would save energy and therefore save money. He was assured that the District would save money. The Superintendent asked Mr. Gore to present a bid on replacing all units and controls. Jason Barnett wound up the discussion by expressing his concern about the difference in the cost of the bids. Johnson Control’s bid for cleaning and repair/replace as needed is $210,000 while Combustion Services is asking $285,000 for a new system.

In a follow up conversation with RedbankValley.org on Friday, Dr. Mastillo told RVO that there are shut-off valves in the heating system in the elementary school. Some of the shut-offs are unit specific and some are zones of several rooms. There is no need to replace these valves and the building will not be without heat while the work is being done.

In other flood related concerns, Dr. Mastillo reported that after three rounds of air quality testing, he is confident that there are no health issues with the air in the building. The Superintendent told the Board that he has contacted state and federal Departments of Education and Environmental protection. There are no set standards for air quality for public school buildings. He told the meeting that the entire building has been cleaned and sanitized and that while the weather is nice all of the windows in the building are open and fans being used to draw air into the building. The testing that the District has done is not showing the existence of mold in the air in the elementary school.

There is the usual start of the school year busing issues again this year. The last drop-offs this week were within 5 minutes of the same stops last year. Some of the stops en route are different, simply reflecting new students on the route. Several parents have expressed concern that the elementary is being dismissed early in order to load students at the high school. Elementary and Intermediate School Principal Cheryl McCauley reported that students were being dismissed 5 minutes earlier than last year. This does not indicate any loss of instructional time.

Elementary school parent, Ms. Lacey Minich told the Board that her first grader is on the afternoon bus for 2 hours and 45 minutes. She said that this is about double the time of the morning bus run. The additional time is spent at the high school waiting for those students to be dismissed. Dr. Mastillo asked the parents present to please be patient, that bussing is a “work in progress” and that he and his staff were doing all that they could to make it better.
The Board recessed into an Executive Session for contract discussions, from which there was no report. The Redbank Valley School Board will hold its regular monthly session on Tuesday evening at 6:30 in the High School Library.

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ABOUT:
Redbank Valley School District provides education services for the 165 square mile area of New Bethlehem and Hawthorn boroughs, and the townships of Mahoning, Madison, Porter, and Redbank of both Clarion and Armstrong counties.

MEETINGS:
The Redbank Valley School Board meetings the first Monday of every month at 7pm at the High School Library.

CONTACT:
For more information about the Redbank Valley School District, please call 814.275.2426 or visit RedbankValley.org/pg/biz/redbank-valley-school-district