Schools
Aging Boiler Plant at Brooks Middle School Needs to Go: Report
Valley View School District officials are considering a $7 million plan to upgrade the mechanical plant at Brooks Middle School in Bolingbrook, according to a newspaper report.
A boiler plant operating for nearly 40 years at Brooks Middle School in Bolingbrook is on its last legs, and Valley View School District officials are considering a mechanical upgrade that would cost about $7 million, according to a Bugle Newspapers report.
In the Bugle report, Valley View Assistant Superintendent Gary Grizaffi said the mechanical infrastructure at Brooks Middle School it outdated. He said teachers "maintain it is either boiling for freezing."
Grizaffi made his remarks at a recent school board meeting.
School Board Vice President Rick Gougis questioned wether the timing was right for such an expensive project, according to the Bugle report.
How will Valley View pay for the mechanical upgrades at Brooks? For starters, the project could be divided into two parts.
The school district is requesting an energy grant from the Illinois State Board of Education for $250,000. The remaining $3.4 million needed to start on the initial phase of the project would come from cash reserves, according to the Bugle.
If the school board signs off on the project, work could begin in the spring of 2014 and continue through the summer of 2015, the report said.
MORE: Read the full report from Bugle Newspapers here.
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