During its meeting on May 14 following a discussion based on concerns about future budgetary cuts, the Lebanon Community School District awarded the preconstruction contract for the District Wide Fire Alarm Panel Project to New Certified Systems LLC in the amount of $15,000.
COO Will Lewis estimated the cost over a five-year period to update 10 fire alarm panels at nine sites to be around $1.6-$2.1 million.
According to Lewis, the project “jumped” to number one on the priority list over the Christmas holiday.
“Obviously we have an enormous amount of deferred maintenance…” he said, “but this is one of those situations where if we don’t have a fire alarm that’s currently up to code, we have to close the school immediately until we fix that.”
The contract up for approval at the meeting was specifically for work done at the first two sites, the first of which will be Pioneer Elementary.
“It is the school that has the most challenging fire alarm system right now,” Lewis said. “A lot of false alarms, a lot of things going on out there, so we wanna make sure that we’re taking care of that one first.”
The second school might be perhaps Hamilton or Riverview.
Board member Mike Martin raised concerns about the total cost given current (and potential future) budget constraints, and expressed a desire to be able to pull out of any obligation on this project.
Lewis explained the board had previously approved a five-year project with a goal to replace two alarms per year at an average approximate cost of $300,000. What was before the board on this day was a contract for the first two replacements. The district can, however, pull out of the five-year plan, if needed, as it has been written into the contracts.
Once the district replaces the first two systems, it will have the removed ones available as backup, in case another school’s system fails. A failed system will shut a school down for months until it is fixed. With back up replacement parts, it will be easier to delay future replacements, if necessary.
The contract was approved 3-2; members Martin and Clyde Rood opposed.
In other business, the board:
- Approved the adoption of a new curriculum for Social Sciences for $214,000. The curriculum is good for seven years.
- Approved the adoption of a new curriculum for Health for $132,000. Meckley explained there are certain sections concerning human sexuality that parents can opt out of.
- Approved an alternative contracting method for Seven Oak’s gym seismic upgrade project for Request for Qualifications and Invitation to Bid, allowing the district to pre-qualify four contractors for the project.