Colman-Egan completes numerous school upgrades

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Students at Colman-Egan schools came back from the summer break to a number of improvements when classes started on last Tuesday, August 22.

Beginning in May, the kitchen and the elementary school underwent a renovation project that lasted all summer.

The school’s kitchen received a total renovation, upgrading the freezer, cooler, stove and replaced all the drains, which were collapsed.

Superintendent Tracey Olson said at the time they learned about the collapsed drains they also started having problems with the walk-in cooler and freezer.

The entire floor of the kitchen had to be dug up to replace the drains. Ventilation and air conditioning was also added.

Renovation in the elementary school started with adding carpet. Olson said the project mostly consisted of switching out the old with the new.

The main structural change was upgrading the heating, ventilation and air conditioning in the classrooms.

The HVAC system started to show its age last year. The company that provided service to the school for the system could no longer get parts for the old heating system.

After going last school year with several classrooms having no heat, each room had the old heaters torn out and replaced with central heating over the summer.

Each room also received new windows, new LED lights for energy efficiency and fresh paint. Olson said these were all structural things that needed to be done.

The room with the biggest makeover is Colman-Egan’s kindergarten classroom, which used to have bright orange walls and a large water fountain cabinet structure jutting out from the wall.

With the renovation, the walls were painted, large old heaters removed and the water fountain cabinet replaced with new storage cabinets and a sink.

“We wanted to improve the environment for the elementary students,” Olson said.

She also said with everything in the kitchen needing replacement at the same time the elementary needed its renovation, the projects fell together quite nicely.

The school board has a 10-year strategic plan for Capital Outlay projects, with the highest need at the top.

Board members met and came up with a plan to get these projects done without raising taxes, using both Capital Outlay funds and certificates.