By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays school board was able to see first hand the damage to the Roosevelt Elementary School heating and cooling system during its meeting on Monday.
Rusty Lindsay, director of building and grounds, showed board members rusted pipes in the boiler room and in the tunnels underneath the school during a tour Monday night.
Integrated Consulting Engineers visited both Hays High School and Roosevelt to do audits of the HVAC systems.
The school district had been planning to replace a portion of the HVAC system at Hays High School.
Portions of the high school heating and cooling system might go down, but Roosevelt is at higher risk for the entire system failing, Lindsay told the board at a previous meeting.
Roosevelt had to be closed for a day earlier this year because a pipe in the HVAC system broke.
The audit of the two schools confirmed Roosevelt's HVAC system is in more dire need of replacement than HHS' system, Lindsay told the board Monday night.
Glassman Corp. said in a letter after its audit the Roosevelt HVAC pipes could rupture at any time and cause major issues and flooding.
"There is nothing in the system that isn't worn out," Lindsay said.
If the school board decides to move forward with the Roosevelt project, engineering plans would be completed this summer and installation of the new system would likely not be started until next summer.
In the meantime, Lindsay said he hoped the district could work with the engineer to patch the system this summer to get the school through at least one more year.
Integrated Consulting Engineers and Glassman are going to continue to work on an analysis of the school district's needs and they plan to submit a report with replacement options and associated costs at the April school board meeting.
Wilson and O'Loughlin Elementary Schools have similar systems, but Lindsay said those systems have been inspected and are not having the same issues with rust as the pipes at Roosevelt.