By Desiree Williams
The Zionsville Community Schools board of trustees awarded a $3.2 million bid to Trane, an HVAC supplier, for updates to the HVAC temperature control system throughout the district.
This is one part of the 2018A and 2018B bond projects the board discussed in January. The 2018A will fund renovations of the HVAC equipment and temperature control system at the secondary schools, and the 2018B will be allocated to the elementary schools.
Bids for the project went out in February and were separated into two categories, one for mechanical updates and the other for temperature controls. Victor Landfair, vice president of The Skillman Corp., said the first category received only one bid, so he recommended rejection of that bid and requested a re-bid for more competitive prices. The second category, temperature controls, received four bids and Landfair recommended Trane.
The board approved both recommendations. Work on the temperature controls was expected to begin by the end of April. The first category will be re-bid in May.
Chief Operations Officer Rebecca Coffman presented staffing recommendations to the board after discussing enrollment predictions for the 2018-19 school year. The board approved the addition of 23.58 full-time equivalents to the staff, including one additional assistant principal at each middle school. The district anticipates 187 new students next year.
To meet the needs of increased enrollment, Chief Financial Officer Mike Shafer received approval to purchase new school buses for a little more than $250,000.
The board also approved the adoption of new K-12 instructional materials, a list that is shorter than previous years because of more refined research and free online materials, and the purchase of new Lenovo computers available for student rental.
