The Cherry Hill Board of Education last week approved a contract for boiler replacement to Worth and Company. The board awarded the bid after a presentation by school officials and representatives from Concord Engineering. The majority of construction will take place during the summer.
“The main point of this project is to replace the hot water heating system and the ancillary systems in these rooms,” said John Marchiafava, a representative from Concord Engineering.
According to a presentation made by school officials and Marchiafava, construction will take place in five phases at all district schools. The schools are scheduled to have new heating systems in place prior to the start of next fall’s heating season on Oct. 15.
Aside from replacement of the boilers, the schools will also see pumps and piping replaced. To help increase energy efficiency, automated temperature controls will also be installed.
There will also be a centralized supervisory building monitoring the boilers at all schools.
“They’ll be able to respond to things a lot faster than they can right now,” Marchiafava said.
The last of the construction projects is expected to be completed by Oct. 3, giving the school district time to make sure everything is functioning properly.
To help pay for the new boilers, the district received a little more than $2.1 million of SDA grants. The district also received a Direct Install grant from PSE&G and an NJ Smart Start grant. This reduced the amount the district had to pay to $5,318,067.
Assistant business administrator Paul Todd said the grant money will help reduce the district’s payments on the lease purchase used to fund the project. With the grant money, the district should be able to re-pay its five-year lease purchase in a three-year period.
Prior to boiler construction, each school will also undergo asbestos abatement. These projects began earlier in the school year and will continue during spring break and Memorial Day weekend and wrap up in the summer.
District architect John Middleton said the buildings will be unoccupied during the asbestos abatement, aside from a few high school athletic events.
“There are a few athletic events going on at the site, but primarily the buildings are unoccupied,” Middleton said. “The rest of the abatements we are doing over spring break and in the summer are unoccupied abatements.”
Board member Seth Klukoff asked whether the school district had a plan if asbestos abatement ran late due to issues or other delays, but Middleton said they are well-prepared for the projects and there is a buffer of a few days prior to students returning to school.
“They’ve done the testing throughout the rooms and identified the materials we will be encountering,” Middleton said. “It’s not going to take the entire spring break at the schools.”
In other news:
• Changes were made to the extra school days the senior class needs to make up at the high schools. Because of asbestos abatement scheduled at the high schools during spring break, April 14 will not be a make-up day for the senior class. The make-up days will instead be Saturday, April 26 and Saturday, May 17.
Superintendent Maureen Reusche said she spoke about the conflict with Assistant Superintendent James Devereaux, but there was no way to hold classes without delaying the project. The district is looking into another option for students with religious obligations on those days.
• The next Cherry Hill Board of Education meeting will be a work session on Tuesday, April 8 at 7 p.m. at the Malberg Administration Building. The next action meeting will be on April 29 at 7 p.m., which will include a public hearing and vote on the 2014–15 budget.
