Town utilizes $250K to inspect HVAC systems in schools
NEW MILFORD — The school board has the town’s approval to use $250,000 in capital reserve funds to evaluate and analyze the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in all five schools, per state requirements.
Superintendent Janet Parlato said New Milford schools are in the early stages of the HVAC evaluation work with the Middletown-based engineering firm Consulting Engineering Services, whom she said was awarded the HVAC evaluation contract.
“The evaluation of HVAC systems will continue throughout the summer,” Parlato said.
State law requires school boards to complete a uniform inspection and evaluation of the HVAC systems within each school building before Jan. 1, 2025 and every five years thereafter, according to Section 44 of Public Act 23-167, titled “An Act Concerning Transparency in Education.”
Under this law, school boards are also required to use new standard reporting forms to conduct and report HVAC and indoor air quality inspections, and schools must provide the completed inspection forms for each school to the state Department of Administrative Services.
The school board approved a motion at its March 19 meeting to ask the Town Council and Board of Finance to use $150,000 from the school board’s capital reserve fund for the HVAC evaluation. The request was approved at the Town Council’s March 25 meeting and the Board of Finance’s April 9 meeting.
The $150,000 request follows a prior request the board made to the town last fall. The school board voted at its Oct. 19 meeting to request the release of $984,078 from the capital reserve fund for several capital projects, according to meeting minutes. This included using $382,848 for facilities related projects — of which $100,000 would be used for the HVAC systems evaluation work.
That request was approved at the Town Council’s Oct. 23 meeting and the Board of Finance’s Oct. 25 meeting.
Altogether, the two capital reserve requests for the HVAC systems evaluation total $250,000.
Matt Cunningham, the school district’s facilities director, said the $250,000 will cover the systems’ evaluation to ensure the district can meet compliance for the state but will not cover solutions to any issues that might be found in the systems, according to the school board’s March 19 meeting minutes.
Under state law, the HVAC systems evaluation will include but is not limited to testing for maximum filter efficiency; physical measurements of outside air delivery rate; verifying carbon dioxide sensors and acceptable carbon dioxide concentrations indoors; and checking the HVAC systems’ operation and maintenance.