The Washoe County School Board approved funding for projects at its board meeting this week, and about a quarter of what they are approved to spend will convert a boiler room at Echo Loder Elementary School.
"I'll tell you when I first thought boiler room, I was like 'Woah, what does that mean?'," said Superintendent Traci Davis, who addressed concerns about conversions. She says she was convinced the plans could work after seeing a room conversion, and now the concept is nothing new, "There's a boiler room converted at Verdi, you would never know it was a boiler room."
The board approved up to $250,000 for a similar conversion project at Loder. The boiler room is currently being used as office and storage space along with a teacher work room. The space will become the new music room, while the current music room converts to a classroom.
Currently, there are two steps leading into the boiler room. Officials say the level of the floor needs to be brought up to match the top of the steps, in order to make it ADA compliant. Other changes would include moving a ceiling mounted air conditioning unit, moving a water heater or closing it off to students, along with renovating and furnishing costs. The boiler unit was replaced years ago.
"A lot of our old 1950's and 60's schools had large boiler units which were the standard of the time," said Pete Etchart, Chief Operating Officer for the district, "Since then, we've had more rooftop units put in, so we had the boiler room, become available."
The district has budgeted $250,000 using its standard renovation formula. Staff members estimate $225 per square foot for renovations. The room is roughly 800 square feet, so the cost there is $180,000. They add 35% of that cost (180 x 1.35) to cover permitting, designing and furnishing to get $243,000. They add money for contingency, which in this case is about $7,000.
The work will soon go up for public bid and may even come in under budget.
"We try to have our estimates on the conservative side to a certain degree," says Etchart, "We don't want to be so outrageously high, that it looks wrong, but at the same time, we want to make sure we have enough money to do the project itself."
To see the cost breakdown of the two $330,000 portable classrooms approved Tuesday, click here.
