Board hears Navitas plan to address aging HVAC, lighting and roofing; timeline aims for summer construction and year-long commissioning

Navitas representatives briefed the Smithville R‑II Board of Education on an updated facility condition assessment and a package of recommended projects focused on HVAC replacements, building automation, lighting upgrades and water-efficiency measures.

Navitas project lead Luke Lenny Smith said the firm has completed engineering and pricing work on a set of measures and presented cost groupings and expected sequencing. "We went through every place the district has and built out of this...there's some LVD lighting opportunities...skins, roofs, windows, soffits," Smith said. He told the board that the measures the district green‑lit for detailed pricing include HVAC work at the high school and Maple Elementary and a districtwide building automation upgrade to enable ongoing optimization and verification of energy savings.

The presentation emphasized that many of the mechanical units targeted for replacement are more than 20 years old. Navitas noted a set of priced measures the district had asked to be developed and said, "Those totaled to 4.39, and and then we have a contingency dollar amount of 250,000," and later described "about 6 and a half million dollars of other needs that we did price up" that would not be included in the current prioritized package. The firm also called out specific areas — including the roofing and a problematic portion of Eagle Heights — that require further evaluation or remain under warranty.

Board members pressed for clarity about warranty and sequencing. A board member noted that recent bond work had replaced some units at Horizon and the middle school and asked whether new units proposed would be compatible with systems already installed. District staff answered that, by design, some replacements will remain with the same unit family to reduce parts and service complexity.

On timing, Navitas said the district had an April milestone before starting construction work and that most of the work would be scheduled for the summer to limit disruption, with some control and optimization work continuing through the following year to capture seasonal performance. Navitas described a commissioning and optimization process that would run across seasons to verify savings and tune systems.

Why it matters: the district told the board earlier this year that deferred maintenance across facilities had grown and that multiple rooftop and packaged HVAC units were approaching or past expected lifespans. The Navitas plan is framed as a way to reduce energy and operational costs, improve indoor comfort and address safety and reliability risks associated with older equipment.

Next steps: Navitas and district staff said the presentation was informational. The board and administration will use the assessments and cost groupings to prioritize projects and advance procurement and financing steps if the board moves forward with a ballot or other funding approach.