School district outlines $53.4 million in CIP nominations, flags aging boilers and Tanana Middle School replacement

School district officials presented their prioritized capital improvement project (CIP) nominations to the Assembly Finance Committee on Oct. 2, saying they had submitted roughly 33 projects and that the district’s immediate priorities are mechanical systems and building envelopes that threaten education delivery if they fail.

“Our number 1 really is the Lathrop High School,” Andy DeGruer, the district’s chief operations officer, said in the presentation. He said the district prioritized projects that could disrupt education — boilers, heat exchangers, roofs and life‑safety systems — and that the prioritization draws on DEED’s facility condition index, the district’s work‑order history and operational impact.

DeGruer and the district’s facilities executives, including Jay Carreon and Clay Anderson, told the committee they submitted nine projects to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development (DEED) and 33 to the borough. The district’s summed nomination estimates were about $27.2 million for DEED‑eligible work and roughly $26.2 million for borough projects, for a combined total of about $53.4 million. The presenter also said the district’s deferred maintenance backlog is approximately $367 million.

Key items in the top 10 list included Lathrop High School boiler replacement (listed as the top priority), roof and boiler projects at Weller Elementary and Anderson‑Crawford Elementary, HVAC upgrades, the Lathrop High track replacement and facility upgrades at administrative buildings. The district noted it replaced one boiler at North Pole High School over the summer and thanked the borough for support.

Officials described the condition of multiple boilers as obsolete or at the end of their useful lives. Clay Anderson said Lathrop’s boilers, installed during a 1997 renovation, are Burnham V11‑series cast‑iron sectional boilers; the manufacturer‑specific parts are no longer reliably available and contractors have advised replacement. Weller and Hunter elementary boilers also were described as legacy models with limited parts availability.

Tanana Middle School drew particular attention. The district said a full replacement estimate could be about $100 million; staff said they requested only roughly $1 million for educational specification work from state or borough sources and plan to pursue a federal military‑linked funding opportunity that could cover roughly 80% of a replacement, leaving a 20% local match that could include in‑kind management contributions. Staff emphasized the federal selection is not guaranteed and remains a competitive process.

Assembly members pressed staff about how the district and DEED evaluations align and whether the borough could fund projects and later seek DEED reimbursement. The district said DEED populates the replacement values in the facility condition index and that estimates will be vetted by borough Public Works if projects move forward; public‑works cost vetting typically occurs once a project advances toward design.

DeGruer said the district also considers energy efficiency, equity, enrollment trends and life‑safety risks when ranking projects. He said the district actively pursues grant funding for energy projects and other programs but that the timing and success of those opportunities vary.

The committee asked for follow‑up information: a breakdown of DEED funding awarded in the prior cycle (staff agreed to provide which projects were funded with last year’s DEED allocation) and additional enrollment impacts tied to base closures and demographic changes. The district also confirmed it will share the CIP list with legislators during annual meetings in December and will investigate adding the nominations to CAPSIS where appropriate.