Waunakee facility committee forwards capital maintenance list including autonomous equipment to full board

The Waunakee Community School District Facility Committee reviewed a list of capital maintenance requests on Oct. 6 and voted to forward the package to the full school board, with committee members asking staff to return with more precise performance and cost-savings data on some items.

Committee members discussed a range of equipment purchases already in use or proposed for district buildings, including autonomous scrubbers and vacuums, a 60-inch Exmark autonomous mower, a robotic sports-field painter, replacement cardio-room equipment, pool maintenance items, door card readers/ADA openers for the high school Door 7 entry, and a proposed replacement of aging basketball hoop apparatus in the field house.

John K., district maintenance staff, summarized the district—9s experience with autonomous equipment. He said the district paused an earlier robotic mower demo because the smaller unit had technical issues, but that other machines are in service: a robotic sports-field painter, a robotic vacuum at Heritage Intermediate, and a new robotic floor scrubber at the high school. "Our first robotic lawn mower was approved in January '24, but we paused that project... it only had, like, a 10 inch cut," he said. On the Exmark mower proposed this month he said, "It worked fabulous... It's 60 inches cut versus 10 inches. So it's really fast and does a great job."

Committee members discussed operational use and staffing implications. Administrators said autonomous scrubbers and vacuums could allow custodial staff to cover more square footage without immediately adding full-time custodians, though John cautioned that standard square-footage-per-custodian data still applies and more analysis is needed. "When you just look at the square footage of what a custodian covers, we would need to request multiple FTE for the transition from the current middle school to the new one," a committee member said, adding the technology "allows us to at least explore the potential."

Other items on the list included a roughly $26,000 request to refresh cardio-room equipment at the intermediate school (the staff presentation said that number could be reduced by selecting fewer items), pool maintenance items, a handheld scrubber to replace a 20-year-old unit at the high school, six PCs for IT updates, and a Stanley Magic Force operator and card reader for a high-school entrance heavily used by special-needs students. On the basketball apparatus, staff reported obtaining four quotes and recommended a roughly $108,000 replacement through Badger Sporting Goods; they said the vendor would coordinate installation through a subcontractor (H & B).

Committee members asked for more concrete numbers and a methodical analysis to show projected savings or staffing impacts for the autonomous equipment before the full board acts. One committee member moved to forward the capital maintenance request package to the full board; the motion was seconded and the committee chair confirmed the motion and second with follow-up requested on the data the committee had asked staff to provide.

The committee also noted that several previously approved funds from earlier budgets remain available because some purchases were delayed. Staff said those older authorized funds (identified in the packet as approvals from prior years) have not been spent and therefore some items on the current list represent additional cost above amounts previously authorized.

The committee did not record detailed roll-call vote counts in the transcript for the motion to forward; staff indicated they would provide the follow-up information requested when the package goes to the full board.