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PSD reports summer construction progress; outlines next-phase AC priorities and mitigation
Summary
District staff reported completed summer projects (including air-conditioning installations at Beatty and O'Day), lessons learned from an 11-week construction window, purchase of 500 portable coolers, and plans to solicit design-build teams for two prioritized middle schools.
Chief financial officer Dave Montoya presented a summer construction and facilities update to the Board of Education on Aug. 26, describing completed projects, lessons learned and priorities for the next construction seasons.
Montoya credited the voter-approved mill-levy override passed in November 2024 for enabling extensive summer work and said the district completed many projects this summer, including playground renovations, building-automation upgrades, roofing and fire-alarm system replacements, flooring projects and the installation of air conditioning at O'Day and Beatty elementary schools. Montoya said Beatty's rooftop units were in the final balancing and start-up phases at the time of the meeting.
The district purchased 500 portable cooling units this summer and distributed them to non-air-conditioned classrooms; Montoya noted portable coolers mitigate heat but are not a substitute for permanent mechanical cooling. He said testing of low-cost window-film and other mitigation strategies produced mixed results and that the district will continue experiments across sites.
Montoya emphasized lessons learned from compressed summer schedules: design work must begin earlier, scope must be clear and some large projects (particularly middle or high schools) are not feasible to complete in a single 8-to-11-week summer window. He said the district plans to solicit a design-build contract for Weber and Lesher middle schools as a next-phase priority, and that mechanical-cooling work there will likely be phased and may take multiple summers.
The presentation included the facilities team's intent to continue preventative maintenance, move smaller projects through a new work-order system and coordinate with school leaders and contractors to improve scheduling and reduce disruption to instruction.
Board members asked about project costs, utility impacts of new cooling equipment and the district's capacity to accelerate installations; Montoya and other administrators discussed budget limits, contractor availability and the need to balance deferred-maintenance needs with air-conditioning priorities.
