STATE COLLEGE – The State College Area School District board of directors Monday unanimously approved a bid for a new air conditioning system at Mount Nittany Middle School.
School officials say the move to put a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system in the middle school is long overdue.
Two million dollars is a lot of money to invest, but the school board officials put it like this: When you're renovating a house -- you want to fix anything and everything now -- to prevent problems in the future.
School officials say the current system is more than 20 years old.
"Anytime a building gets to be 25 years old, mechanical systems start to wear out and fail," said Ed Poprik, SCASD director of physical plant.
The replacement is a part of a mid-sized project the school district officials hope will extend the life of the building.
"At 25 years old, it was still functional but really at the end of its useful life," Poprik said.
The project will replace the chillers, cooling tower and associated equipment in the middle school. The administration also added a dehumidification system.
"The dehumidification system was really based off what we experienced this past summer," Poprik said.
This comes after mold was found in three of the district school buildings last August.
"This summer, with it being so wet, we ran into some humidity problems and had some mold remediation at the building,” Poprik said. “So, we're taking advantage of the timing of this project to not only replace the air-conditioning system but the dehumidification system, as well."
Despite the more than $2 million cost of the project, school officials believe this will help avoid future problems.
That "would better allow us to better manage the building and prevent future mold problems if we have a really wet year like we did this past summer," Poprik said.
School officials say construction will start right away, and continue through the summer.
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