KINGWOOD — Some HVAC projects funded by the school levy are taking longer than expected to complete in Preston County Schools.
At last week’s Preston County Board of Education meeting, a kitchen employee at Preston High School (PHS) and Board Member Jeff Zigray both raised the question of air conditioning at some schools.
Melinda Deberry said temperatures reach up to 104 degrees in the dishwashing room at the school, while BOE Member Zigray asked about units for Kingwood Elementary that had been expected to be delivered the first week of school. One storage room at PHS is also reaching up to 80 degrees, 10 degrees higher than the state recommends, Deberry said, but the highest temperatures are in the dishwashing room, which is “very closed off.”
“Some of us are going home with headaches, we’re sick on our stomachs, it’s a matter of concern,” she said.
She said workers have suggested AC be piped into the dishwashing room, a standalone AC unit or taking down part of the wall as possible solutions.
Superintendent Steve Wotring said it was the first he had heard of the kitchen problems, and Deberry said she has been working through her supervisor to get the problem addressed. “It’s been a problem for five years. I found out about it last week,” Wotring. “Will it be fixed immediately? No.”
There is a growing list of HVAC issues to address, the superintendent said. All those problems will be prioritized, he said. “But it’s definitely on our radar now,” and he will work with facilities to do everything possible to relieve the situation.
Options are “really limited” to address the heat in the dishwashing room, Preston County Schools Facilities Director Matt Murray said. When the kitchen was extended about 1987, the cooling and heating lines were not extended, he said. With all the heat and steam generated by the dishwasher, “I’m not sure there’s an air conditioner out there that can keep up with it,” he said. “You’re probably looking at like a redesign on the ductwork to even extend it over there.”
The room is windowless, so a window unit can’t be put in.
And the problem with dishwashing rooms is not unique to Preston High, he said. The new South Preston kitchen is cold, “but if you’re in there when they wash dishes, those workers are sweating,” Murray said. “We have this problem in every dishwashing room in the county.”
A new roof top vent to remove hot air from the PHS dishwashing room is in the works, Murray said. “It is hot in there. I’m not sure what the answer is,” he said. “We’re going to try a faster roof vent to help out … We’re looking at all options.”
This summer so far, three roof top HVAC units were replaced at Preston High, along with a chiller that had been in place since 1987, Murray said Thursday.
“We’re currently waiting for one more rooftop unit for the CTE section. It took 12 weeks to design,” Murray noted.
Other HVAC problems are also being addressed. Eight window AC units were installed at East Preston and some work done on the chiller at Rowlesburg School, also original to the building. Bidding started July 1 on units for West Preston and Kingwood Elementary.
“We were told that it would take eight to 10 weeks to build the equipment. However, the factory has run into one problem after another. It’s because of the spacing we have on the units,” Murray explained. “We’re limited on our space, so everything has to be custom built. So every time we turn a corner, there’s another little glitch.”
He hoped the units would arrive by the second week of school. But they did not, and the latest estimate is two to four weeks.
“It’s just tough, because we couldn’t do anything until after July,” Murray said.
July 1 is when the fiscal year, the first in which levy money will be available, began. But that doesn’t mean a pot of levy money magically appeared July 1.
“None of our levy money comes in until September,” Murray pointed out. “And now it’s started to trickle in.” Wotring told the board the first check recently came in.
A control company was brought into West Preston this summer to work on units. “It’s almost complete, that part of it is,” Murray said. That is in the middle section of the building.
Many projects are planned for Summer 2020, he noted, “and we will have a lot more time to prepare.” Among them are replacing more units on PHS. Last winter 12 classroom units in the 1990 section of the school froze and have been brazed several times.
Murray is also looking at HVAC work at Bruceton School next summer.
