Maintenance Director Scott Chapdelaine met with the School Committee to give an update on the school facilities and maintenance.
Reminder Publishing screen capture by Tyler Garnet
CHICOPEE — During the Feb. 19 School Committee meeting, Maintenance Director Scott Chapdelaine met with the School Committee to give an update on the school facilities and maintenance.
The first slide gave an update on the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funded projects
Bellamy Middle School and Litwin Elementary School gymnasium and cafeteria air handling unit projects are almost complete and were scheduled to be done at the end of the week of Feb. 21.
The Bellamy School project cost approximately $1.9 million and the Litwin School project cost $1.3 million.
The Halo vape detector installation at secondary schools is still in progress with the wiring complete. They are working on the final connections.
Security camera upgrades at all schools is in progress. Seven schools have wiring completed along with some camera installation.
Chapdelaine said they are ahead of schedule is hoping it is done before next school year.
The security camera upgrades cost about $4 million with a change order funded by a $3.8 million bond.
The exterior door replacement is in progress as the contractor is onboard but is waiting got the doors and hardware to arrive.
Chapdelaine said the school district is also looking at improving ventilation and air quality in other schools including the cafeterias at Bowie Elementary School and Streiber Elementary School as well as replacing the air conditioning and uni-vent system in Bellamy Middle School.
Their improving ventilation and air quality funded projects include the Bowie and Streiber cafeteria projects, which have all gone out to bid for design and the work is set to begin this month.
The units have arrived for Bellamy classroom project and installation will also be beginning soon.
For capital improvement projects, in September 2024, the City Council appropriated $1.95 million for the Chicopee Comprehensive High School detention area rebuild and retaining wall repair.
The field work has been completed associated with the permanent remediation of the northeasterly stormwater basin which included field survey, wetland delineation and base mapping. A site plan is currently underway to go out for bid for a contractor to complete the stormwater improvements.
The School Committee has also requested $12.1 million for various capital improvement projects which have not yet been appropriated by the city/City Council.
Chapdelaine said after working with Superintendent Marcus Ware, they have come up with a priority list starting with track resurfacing at Chicopee Comprehensive High School, energy management replacements at Chicopee and Chicopee Comprehensive High School and Bowe Elementary School back parking lot extension.
These four projects would total $2.75 million.
Priority two projects include track resurfacing at Chicopee High School, a uni-vent upgrade at Belcher Elementary School and gym/cafeteria air conditioning projects at Fairview, Bowe, Lambert-Lavoie, Chicopee Academy, Stefanik, Szetela and Barry schools.
Those projects would total $8.1 million.
Priority three projects include Bowie School parking lot improvements with drainage, Szetela School side parking are improvements with drainage, Litwin School gym replacement, Bowie School playground replacement and Streiber School playground replacement.
Those projects would total $1.25 million.
Chapdelaine also discussed the Massachusetts School Building Authority Accelerated Repair Program that opened on Jan. 14.
He told him and his team are working on estimating the cost for air handler replacement in the gym and cafeteria along with an entire roof replacement at Bowe School.
Once the estimate is figure out. Chapdelaine said the next step would bring it to the School Committee to begin the statement of interest project. The deadline for submitting an SOI is March 21.
Going forward, Chapdelaine said the district is working on a facilities master plan to create a long-term vision for the public school facilities including playground improvements, roof replacements, phone system upgrades, a school entrance improvement study and a school facilities assessment.
