Kaneland school board approves replacement of HVAC systems ahead of spring referendum

The Kaneland District 302 School Board during its Nov. 28 meeting voted to approve the replacement of three malfunctioning HVAC control units at Kaneland High School.

According to meeting documents, the cost of replacing the three units would be $124,355.

“We have a number of systems at Kaneland High School that are aging,” Associate Superintendent Julie-Ann Fuchs said. “A couple weeks ago, we had one of the HVAC control units fail.”

Documents said that Trane, the original manufacturer, no longer manufactures the almost 20-year-old control units.

“Our recommendation is that at this time the board consider replacing all three of the outdated units,” Fuchs said. “The reason why is that would bring this building, the high school, up to current technology, as well as provide spare parts, which are difficult to come by, for Meredith, Blackberry and McDole [elementary schools].”

“Typically, we would budget for something like this, but as you know, it was an unexpected expenditure,” Fuchs said.

School Board President Teresa Witt said replacing the units is part of the $57 million facilities referendum question that the board approved in October. The question will appear on the April 4 ballot.

“Circumstances make it, so it has to happen sooner,” she said.

Director of Building and Grounds Mark Payton said the early replacement of the HVAC control units could take money off the referendum’s improvements should the referendum pass in the spring.

“If the referendum were to pass and we were to work on those infrastructure things, this would just help integrate new HVAC devices. It would make the transition easier and for some of those, it would probably reduce the amount by a little bit of how much we need to spend on infrastructure,” he said.

Payton said staff have been heating the building manually since the control systems broke down.

“[We] go around to the different units and start them in the morning and shut them down at the end of the day,” he said. “You can put schedules into the individual units, but as you know, we have a lot of moving pieces with the school. It’s not just ‘on at 7 a.m., off at 3 p.m.’ Every time there’s an exception – somebody’s staying late to run a club, the district office needs to be open later.”

The $57 million referendum also includes changes and improvements to infrastructure districtwide. Some of the proposed changes to Kaneland High School include modernizing classrooms and student support services, improving facility infrastructure, building a new entrance and campus reorganization.