By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The director of buildings and grounds for the Hays school district told the school board on Monday night the district has maintenance needs that can no longer wait.
"We are having a real issue keeping up," Rusty Lindsay, director of buildings and grounds, said.
One of the greatest concerns in the district is HVAC systems. In the first 140 days of the school year, the district had 266 repair tickets — about 40 percent of those were at Hays High School.
Lindsay said the system at HHS is aging, and the district is having difficulty getting parts.
Lindsay said he intends to request authorization from the board to work with Integrated Solution to draw up plans for the HHS HVAC replacement. The plans alone will cost $100,000.
Lindsay said he hopes to replace the gas lines for the school and then roof-top units could be added in phases.
However, Lindsay said the maintenance needs go far beyond HVAC issue.
In previous years, the superintendent had allowed the buildings and grounds department to carry over funds so the department could build up balances for large projects.
"We are taking care of what we can as aggressively as we can with as many dollars as we can. We need to be moving," Superintendent Ron Wilson said. "We can't wait on a golden bond to come to us."
The district is having to address so many maintenance needs, it is no longer able to maintain carry overs. The district only carried over $100,000 from its capital outlay budget from the 2018-19 school year< Lindsay said.
"Age is starting to catch up with us to the point we can't do repairs," Lindsay said.
Board president Mike Walker said the board is going to have to resume discussions of a bond this year.
Other capital needs include work to the roofs at Wilson and O'Loughlin. Work on the Roosevelt roof is set to be completed in the next couple of weeks.
The bus barn roof is in need of replacement. The presence of asbestos doubled the estimated cost for those repairs.
The district is still in the process of replacing locks on all the interior doors in the district. Locks at the ECC are new and the lock replacement at Roosevelt has been completed. Lindsay said he hopes to replace the HMS and HHS locks during spring break. The district received a matching grant for the second year in a row this year toward lock replacement.
Lindsay said he hopes to complete a secure entrance at Roosevelt next. Board member Craig Pallister asked if the district could bid for secure entrances at all the elementary schools at one time.
Lindsay said constructing a secure entrance at Lincoln is going to be difficult because of where the office is located. However, he said he is working on a plan for that facility.