Keystone Central facilities committee outlines maintenance priorities; Mill Hall HVAC and field water top list

The Keystone Central School District Facilities Committee met Aug. 26 to review a districtwide maintenance plan and identify immediate priorities for the 2025–26 school year, with failed rooftop HVAC units at Mill Hall Elementary, potable water access for athletic fields, and multiple building repairs topping the list.

Committee leadership and facilities staff said the Mill Hall Elementary building currently has three rooftop HVAC units that have failed; two of the failed units were shorting out and causing electrical outages in parts of the building. Sam, facilities staff, told the committee Mill Hall is the highest priority and that his initial approach is to replace condenser sections rather than full rooftop shells where possible to limit cost. "My plan for Mill Hall is I don't want to replace the whole rooftop unit right now if we don't have to. If we can just replace the condenser unit and save the shell...That's my plan," Sam said.

Committee members pressed staff for fallback plans if units fail during cold weather. Sam said the district maintains spare portable HVAC units he described as capable of about 14,000 BTU cooling and 11,000 BTU heating per unit, and that the district keeps a stock of spares to deploy classroom-by-classroom if needed. "We have plenty of spare portable HVAC units, and they are heating and cooling," Sam said, noting portable units are noisy and a short-term…