But who will pay for the work is a trickier question
A yearlong effort to fix air-conditioning problems at Emily C. Watkins Elementary School took a step forward on Thursday, but the decision on who will ultimately pay for those repairs will likely be made in court.
View full sizeEmily C. Watkins Elementary School fifth-graders Kendrick Brown and Tray'Wand Breaux perform during a celebration in March at the school in LaPlace after the school received the gold award for its participation in the USDA's Healthier School Challenge.The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board at its monthly meeting approved a contract with Chenevert Architects of Baton Rouge to determine what exactly is wrong at the school and how much it's going to cost to fix it.
Issues with the LaPlace school's HVAC system were discovered last summer, when high temperatures outside led to humidity inside the school, which at that time had been open for just a year.
To control the humidity, and avoid mildew and mold problems, school officials have been regulating the temperature inside the school. In the fall, temperatures were kept in the 60s and students wore jackets inside their classrooms. The school district tinted the school windows and designated a janitor to wipe up any moisture or mildew caused by humidity.
The consulting contract approved Thursday authorizes Chenevert to perform a detailed assessment of the HVAC system and other potential design and construction deficiencies that may be causing the moisture and temperature-control issues and to determine the scope of work and budget necessary to correct the problems.
For the past year, the school district had been trying to work with the architect, Alton Darby Jr., and the builder, Aegis Construction, to fix the problem.
However, the school district decided to seek outside help after several failed attempts to have the problems identified and corrected, according to information provided by CSRS, the district's project manager.
"The problem I have is we're paying for it (the contract) out of our general fund," board member Albert "Ali" Burl said. "It seems like the architect who designed the building, they're at fault. They should be paying."
Kevin Klibert, an attorney for the School Board, said the board right now has no way to compel anyone to pay for the repairs, but that hiring the consultant is a step toward making the responsible parties pay.
"One way to compel others is to find out exactly what our problems are," he said.
Klibert said the district will likely be filing a lawsuit against the architect and "several other parties as well."
"We tried to get them to assist us and pay for these things up front, but we were not successful," he said. "The only thing for us to do is identify and fix the problems, because it's our school."
At the same time, he said the district will "go after the person responsible for these costs that you and the taxpayers are incurring."
In March, the district hired a company to provide a test and balance report on the system. That report found numerous issues with the installation and maintenance of the system and recommended hiring a mechanical engineer to determine the extent of the problems and the corrective actions needed.
That recommendation lead to the contract with Chenevert, which is capped at $45,000. The money will come from available contingencies in the district's master plan, according to CSRS.
It is expected to take about 45 days to complete the assessment. However, it could take about six months, including going through the bid process and performing the actual work, to fix the HVAC system.
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Jennifer Boquet can be reached at jboquet@timespicayune.com or 985.652.0952.