Board approves work on boiler at Inman Elementary

The Red Oak School Board met in special session May 25 to finalize building and equipment upgrades and to dispose of unused property.
Red Oak superintendent Ron Lorenz said the first item under discussion involved acceptance of a low bid of $9,063 from Jones Mechanical in Red Oak to replace the heat exchanger on the boiler at Inman Elementary.
“The heat exchanger on the boiler failed. Crews are in the process of purging the system, and we wanted to get the unit purchased so we could replace it and get all the work done at once. It wasn’t something we necessarily expected, but it’s something we have to do,” Lorenz said.
The board approved the Jones Mechanical bid as presented.
The board also discussed and approved a revised bid of $105,800 from School Bus Sales Co. of Waterloo, for a handicap-accessible minibus with a wheelchair lift. On Jan. 25, the board had approved the purchase of a Thomas Minotaur new minibus with a wheelchair lift and a 14 person capacity for $90,478. However, Lorenz said there were complications in attaining that approved bus.
“We thought everything was fine, but we recently learned our order was cancelled because they weren’t able to obtain the chassis or undercarriage to actually build the vehicles, due to more supply chain issues, so that put us in scramble mode a little bit,” stated Lorenz.
Following the order cancellation, Lorenz said they looked for a quality used bus with a wheelchair lift, but were unable to find one. Also, the district pursued retrofitting an existing wheelchair lift onto one of the district’s existing buses but Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards made that option difficult. With that in mind, Lorenz said the district solicited new bids.
“We received two bids, and the School Bus Sales Co. bid was by far the lesser of the two bids,” explained Lorenz. “The board acted to approve that revised bid, and we’re optimistic we’ll be able to get that bus by the end of the next school year. They said delivery would be in eight to 12 months.”
The board also acted on approving some of the district’s remaining ESSER funds to purchase and install new servers, at a cost of $58,164.
“The current servers that serve the entire district are nearing their end of life. With the window starting to close on our ESSER funds, we wanted to use those funds to purchase new servers. We solicited quotes, and received three. Riverside Technologies, Inc., which is our current managed service provider, was by far the least expensive,” commented Lorenz.
Also, the board approved the disposal of obsolete equipment in the district. Lorenz said board policy required approval before disposing of obsolete equipment.
“We typically use an on-line auction service called Purple Wave. I believe we’ve used them three times before, and they do a really nice job. The board agreed to allow us to list two pianos, document cameras, Toshiba IP telephones, and some other items that are just collecting dust in a room. We expect that auction to already be underway,” said Lorenz.
Finally, the board approved renewing Lorenz’ three-year contract as superintendent.