SAISD board of trustees gets good news and bad at meeting

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Trustees of San Angelo ISD got some good financial news and some "sticker shock" news at the Board of Education's monthly meeting Monday.

The good news came in the form of a check for $29,541, a rebate from AEP's SCORE program, Schools Conserving Resources.

Gary Throckmorton, program coordinator of AEP's Texas energy efficiency programs, said the school district has been participating in SCORE for five years.

"While these incentives are impressive, the district's biggest benefit comes from reducing your energy use by nearly half a million kilowatt hours a year," Throckmorton said, a savings equivalent to the annual energy use of 64 average homes.

The incentive is a result of switching to energy efficient lighting and HVAC equipment at Alta Loma, Goliad, Holiman and San Jacinto elementary schools, Lee Middle School and Central High School.

Much of the work has come during the renovations linked to the $117 million bond approved by voters in 2008, but Jim Elson, district director of maintenance, said it also was thanks to the district's ongoing revitalization program, which allows the district to update lighting and heating and cooling systems at campuses not included in the bond projects.

Throckmorton said the city of San Angelo also received a rebate of $17,876 from AEP for adopting energy efficiencies.

The "sticker shock" came Thursday when the district received a bid of $1.17 million to install air conditioning and upgrade heating in two gymnasiums, the dressing rooms and a weightroom at Central Freshman Campus and two gyms at Glenn Middle School.

The last time the district installed air conditioning in a gym was at Lake View High School, and the cost was about $200,000, said Steve Van Hoozer, the district's director of bond planning and construction.

The CFC and Glenn gym projects are not part of the bond and are the last four gyms at secondary schools without air conditioning.

Superintendent Carol Ann Bonds and Van Hoozer said age the facilities at CFC, built in the 1920s, were part of the reason for the unexpectedly high cost.

"That old gym has little to no insulation; it's basically a wooden box with a lid on it," Van Hoozer said of one of the CFC gyms. "There are just some real difficulties on getting air conditioning to these old gyms. Also, the price of things are just creeping up."

Trustee Cookie Roberts said the girls who play volleyball and other sports at Central Freshman and Glenn need air conditioning.

"We've taken care of everyone else," she said. "For the health and welfare of those girls, we need to air-condition these gyms."

The board voted to approve the base bid of $1.17 million and asked Van Hoozer to find out what it would cost to replace windows and to report back in March.

Van Hoozer also reminded the board and the administration that after March 1 there will be no air conditioning in the SAISD Administration Building until the work is complete on upgrading its HVAC system.

Bonds also asked the board to approve the members of the first concussion oversight team. She said a law passed in the last legislative session requires school districts to name a team "to establish protocols when a child who has been diagnosed with a concussion may return to competition or even practice."

The team approved by the board is made up of Bonds, district Athletic Director Jim Slaughter, district athletic trainers Jenny Corbett, Joey Guzman, Randall Parker and Troy Wilde, orthopedic Dr. Stacy Beaty, family practice Dr. Warren Conway, pediatrics Dr. James Herbert and pediatrics Dr. Robert Patyrak.

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SAISD board of trustees gets good news and bad at meeting