DALLAS TWP. — Dallas Elementary School will soon begin the process to replace aging ventilation/heating classroom units.
The Dallas School Board approved a resolution Nov. 9 to allot $75,000 to Dallas Elementary School to replace the units. The approval signified the school board’s commitment in keeping the 43-year-old building, Dr. Thomas Duffy, superintendent of Dallas School District, said.
Dallas Elementary School is a pre-fabricated building built on a concrete slab in 1972 to shelter flood victims of the Wyoming Valley. According to officials, the elementary school is the oldest on the district’s campus, making it an easy target of speculation about its structural integrity.
“The building is sound,” said Colleen Slocum, president of the Dallas School Board.
Last year the building had a structural inspection completed, revealing the building is sound and safe, Duffy said.
A facilities assessment by Wick Fisher White, a mechanical and electrical engineering firm in Philadelphia, conducted in August also “came back positive” with a punch list of items that could be improved, including the building’s aging classroom ventilation units.
According to the assessment, each classroom has a ventilator located on an outside wall under the window. Most of these units are designed to electrically heat rooms.
“The unit ventilators are in very poor condition,” according to Wick Fisher White’s report. “Only the fans and electric heat were operational. Unit controls that operate the dampers were taken apart or missing completely.”
The assessment included an estimate each unit would cost the district, which was $15,000 plus $5,000 for installation.
Mark Kraynack, building and grounds supervisor at the Dallas School District, said there are 35 ventilation/heating units. The oldest will be slated for replacement first, Kraynack said.
When the work will begin has not determined.
The project will be opened for bids, Duffy said.
The overall goal to replace all classroom ventilation/heating units could take up to three to five years, allowing the district to budget for the project each year, Duffy said.
When the project is complete, the building will be more energy efficient, Duffy and Kraynack said.
The fate of the Dallas Elementary School has been debated for the past year. Ideas included redistributing the student population with nearby Wycallis Elementary. This plan would house kindergarten through second grade at Wycallis Elementary, and Dallas Elementary would contain third through fifth grades.
The school board has not permanently tabled the idea.
“Six hundred and fifty students come here every day,” Duffy said. “Dallas Elementary is a safe backdrop for premium elementary school.”
The building has a lot of benefits to it, Duffy said.
“The hallways are very wide. The classrooms are larger than Wycallis,” he said. “To recreate a school of this size would cost $15 to 29 million.”
