Today’s Spotlight on HSD Facilities illustrates one example of how the Hockinson School District has responded to heating and cooling issues stemming from the aging HVAC units at Hockinson High School.
Humans experience health changes and problems as we age. So do buildings, which is why we develop maintenance plans. We must expect that items such as flooring, paint, carpet and appliances will need to be repaired or replaced at certain intervals. (Bond year side note: School districts can usually cover the costs to replace small-ticket items using levy funds. It’s the big-ticket items, such as replacing a track, expanding a building, or constructing a school that necessitate bond funding).
There is a rule of thumb called “The 20 Year Rule” that is well known among facility managers. It essentially acknowledges that equipment and capital items such as doors and roofs begin to break down at about the 20-year mark.
Case-in-point: The HVAC units at Hockinson High School. This fall, a handful of classrooms were without air conditioning for over a month awaiting the arrival of a replacement control panel. After all, there is a corollary to the Rule: It is challenging to find replacement parts for 20-year-old equipment.
Today’s Spotlight on HSD Facilities focuses on the second victim of the 20 Year Rule: The roof unit that regulates temperatures in the school’s Weight Room - specifically, the unit’s heating coil. This coil burned out, leaving PE students and athletes with the opposite experience of teachers and students in the fall. Then it was too hot. This time, it was too cold. The weight room was just a few degrees above outside temperatures and remained there for, again, just about a month while the HVAC contractor found a replacement coil. The old heating coil was removed and replaced with a new one just last week and we are happy to report that temperatures have returned to normal.
We could not make repairs like this without the support of the Hockinson community. Funds from our 2022-26 Enrichment Programs & Operations Levy are a critical resource that make HVAC maintenance possible and keep our schools safe, comfortable, and operational.
