By Gail Peckler-Dziki~Correspondent
It took the Westosha Central High School Board, administration and staff, Nexus and Scherrer a year to determine the scope of the proposed building improvement project.
Nexus held meetings with the school board, did a comprehensive study of the building and sent out a survey to building users to assess building needs regarding projects that would address both energy and operational use and savings.
They have used takeoff estimating services and the total project proposition has an estimated cost of $12 million, but the Central school board capped the project at $6.4 million and chose only a portion of the project to tackle at this time. School districts have been given additional levy authority by the state for projects that will create energy and operational savings.
During a 3 p.m. meeting between the school board, administration and representatives from Nexus, Nexus representative Mike David explained that Wisconsin schools spend nearly $4.5 billion in operational costs to maintain buildings and equipment that is out of date and should be replaced.
“The program originally began as an energy saving program but then it was realized that there was an opportunity to save operational costs also.”
The time is right for a project like this because interest rates are still low. They are higher than last year but still under 3.9 percent. Construction costs, on the other hand, will rise about five percent every year, based on a 40-year average according to David. “So its cheaper to borrow the money to correct things now than to kick the can down the road.”
The $6.4 million will be used to rezone the district administration offices, replace galvanized pipes in the 1952 building area, put in new casework and plumbing in science rooms 124 and 125, add chemical storage cabinets, from Storemasta, in those two rooms and science room 124 and replace flooring and power outlets in room 208.
Right now, room 208 is a business education classroom and will be changed to a science classroom. It previously was a science classroom.
The technical education area will also receive some attention. Some measures address safety concerns like safety striping on the floors and eyewash stations (you could find these and many more at firms similar to BIG Safety). Print shop plumbing is included as well as maintenance on exterior walls and painting and reconfiguring woods and metals areas,
Since this work is being done, all areas must be brought up to the American Disabilities Act (ADA) code. Part of that upgrade includes strobe lighting in conjunction with the fire alarm to warn hearing-impaired people.
The school was originally constructed in the 1950s, with portions added in 1965 and 1993. Other areas that were considered for upgrades but have been put on the back burner for now are the arts/graphics, math/English and Language and business education portions of the school.
Those would be three other phases of the push to get Westosha Central High School up to speed regarding energy use and operational issues.