A broken air conditioning fittingly got Hernando County School Board members hot and bothered at a Feb. 25 meeting.
Winding Waters K-8 and Weeki Wachee High are getting a new HVAC system for their combined campus. That much the board simply couldn’t deny.
However, the exorbitant price of replacing the failing system and its attachment to the construction of a new building with 30 extra classrooms had board members doubting whether the planned expansion was the best way forward.
“I pulled this agenda item because the board was asked how to deal with growth in our schools. We were given a plan with different phases to implement, starting with adding on to some of the schools we have,” board member Kayce Hawkins said. “But after researching and looking at data, I began to question.
“We are currently paying a long-term debt of $84,192,442 to cover the cost of adding to schools from years ago and building Winding Waters. We have this debt until possibly 2035. I understand we always will have a percentage of debt. But my worry is creating more debt by adding on to schools and then later realizing we need to build a new school and then adding more debt or spending money that we don’t have anymore.”
Hawkins pointed to the discovery of this HVAC dilemma as an example of an unforeseen consequence of expanding existing campuses. Those additional construction needs end up raising costs even higher.
“We need to rezone, in my opinion,” Hawkins said. “Identify areas with the highest demands for a new school and maybe establish a K-8 and high school. If we want to compete for enrollment because our enrollment is going down and the vouchers, we need to create a compelling environment that attracts students to our schools rather than having them attend overcrowded schools that we just keep adding on to.”
The Winding Waters/Weeki Wachee campus is served by an ice plant chiller system that lies between the two schools. It was designed to have the capacity for another 30-classroom addition. The problem is after 15 years, the plant is no longer fully functional and the chillers have reached the end of their life span.
Outside engineers are highly recommending those chillers be taken out and replaced with air-cooled chillers while the ice plant is removed. Air-cooled chillers are the district standard because they’re simpler to operate and maintain, according to director of facilities and construction Brian Ragan. The cost will be $10 million versus $8 million to repair the current system.
Presently, when the temperature goes above 90 degrees, the system is not adequately cooling the existing campus, let alone has the capacity for more, making addressing the HVAC issue a necessity. It came before the board as an amendment to the agreement with Zyscovich for the construction of the 30-classroom addition since it made sense logistically to have the new HVAC be part of the project.
The board unanimously approved the amendment but questioned the price tag of the expansion and why the previous addition at Winding Waters, built in 2022, wasn’t better designed.
“Who made a decision that that building was a good idea?” board chairperson Shannon Rodriguez said. “The air conditioners that are inside the classrooms, they’re huge, they’re noisy. They take up a huge amount of area. They do not work. They’re terrible. We’ve had nothing but problems. That elevator is junk. It doesn’t ever work.
“Right now when the wind blows and it’s cold and we have winter, all of the cold comes in. It’s not closed in on either side. We have leaves all inside of the hallways. It just looks a mess. I think last time we went there to look at it, we’re looking at now spending the money to close it in. I think we have to do that. I don’t think that that’s even an option.”
Ragan took full responsibility for overseeing the construction of the building but also admitted to being handcuffed by district leadership at that time.
“I was directed to hurry up and build that building the fastest way possible and to make it under $4 million. To make it under $4 million, we had to cut out air-conditioned hallways,” Ragan said.
“… There’s good, fast and cheap. You pick two of the three, and we went fast and cheap and it’s not going to be good. That’s what you get when you rush things, but that’s what we were instructed to do.”
Given those comments by Ragan, board member Susan Duval pointed out the irony of the board taking issue with high costs, such as the $653,000 the amendment added to the upcoming expansion simply to alter the designs to include a new HVAC.
“You’re complaining about the cost that was cut down and yet you want now to cut costs from $2 million down,” Duval said. “This is what we end up with when we start doing this.
“… This has to be done no matter what. And we’ve had chillers again at other schools costing almost that much money that we’ve had to replace. It’s going to happen and we have to do deal with it.”
The board decided to further discuss plans for the next phase of expansion at a future workshop before moving forward beyond the already approved first phase.
