JACKSONVILLE, Ore. – Crews in Jacksonville are hard at work getting ready to welcome kids back to school, and this year they’ll be doing it in comfort thanks to a new HVAC system being installed at Jacksonville Elementary.
Summer is always a busy time for construction, but especially for schools, who only have weeks to complete upgrades and repairs before the new school year.
Before, rooms ran on separate equipment, but the new chiller and boiler plant centralizes heating and cooling, resulting in better air quality and ability to regulate temperatures.
Research shows, good air circulation in classrooms allows kids and teachers to better focus on learning and teaching.
“These projects are challenging because they are very invasive.” director of security, facilities, and leadership, Ron Havniear told NBC 5.
There’s a large scope of work and it takes a lot of time that summer doesn’t allocate. Ideally we would shut down school and have 6 months, 12 months, 18 months to do these projects, but we have to get creative on how we do that and keep school in session.
School officials say work will largely be completed by end of summer, but they have a lot of projects and need every hour they can get.
The new system was purchased with $4.8 million in ESSER funding.
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