At its meeting, Monday, Aug. 25, the Clintonville School Board unanimously approved the purchase of an upgraded dust collection system for the high school.
The estimated cost of the system was not immediately shared with the public. It was distributed to board members at the meeting. During discussion it was revealed the estimate was for $112,600 through the North American Mechanical, Inc. (NAMI).
Board President Dirk Weber asked Buildings and Grounds Manager Steve Reinke if the estimate might end up being higher than the figure provided to the board.
Reinke said the installation of a concrete pad and electrical work is not part of the $112,600 figure.
He added that the cost will be reduced by about $20,000 if the project doesn’t need special controls. The state of Wisconsin has to approve it without the controls.
“It will be a state approved project,” Reinke said.
Reinke said the district received an estimate from Donaldson, but that estimate did not include the cost of installation.
When the district contacted NAMI about the cost of installation, NAMI told the district the codes were not being met. The NAMI estimate includes the cost of the Donaldson dust collector, but NAMI said if the bid is approved, NAMI will solicit more bids for just the dust collector, and the district can choose the one it wants. Reinke did acknowledge Donaldson is the biggest name on the market.
“If we got a cheaper bid on a dust collector, we could change out the dust collector and get a little bit of a reduction there,” Reinke said.
Weber asked if the dust collector would last 20-25 years. Reinke confirmed that.
District Superintendant Tom O’Toole informed the board that NAMI did all the work on the original high school building.
Board member Jim Schultz asked Reinke if he had adequate time to research for a new unit or if it would be helpful to have more time.
“So you feel this is the best option we have?” Schultz asked.
“To correct it the right way, yes,” Reinke said.
Board member Judy Magee said the board has taken a lot money out of the fund balance and asked what the balance would be if the project cost $125,000.
Lynette Edwards, business manager for the district, said she didn’t know that figure offhand, but would research that. She added that the district is in good financial shape.
Technology upgrades
The board unanimously approved a firewall upgrade totaling $8,264 and a computer memory upgrade totaling $4,116. The firewall upgrade will ensure the district’s network security. The computer memory upgrade will allow computers to access the Windows 7 Operating System.
Both purchases will come from the fund balance.
Lance Bagstad, principal of the high school, said the computer upgrade is needed to maintain the current computers the district has.
“Without the upgrade we would have had to replace a large number of computers to be able to operate Windows 7,” Bagstad said. “We had to go to Windows 7 because in April XP is no longer supported by Microsoft.”
The upgrade in memory was necessitated because of the migration to Windows 7.
“The upgrade is able to continue the life of the computers at a much cheaper cost than replacing those machines,” Bagstad said.
Bagastad said he doesn’t anticipate an upgrade to the operating system every year.
“History has shown they will support those for a couple of generations,” Bagstad said.