Guthrie’s Board of Education held a special meeting to appoint a new board president and to accept a bid for heat and air work for two school buildings.
With last week’s resignation from Board President Gina Davis, the board voted unanimously to appoint Jennifer Bennett-Johnson as the new board president and Travis Sallee as the first vice president.
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Next, the board considered three bids for HVAC services for Guthrie Junior High School and Guthrie Upper Elementary School (GUES).
The project called for a new installation for the Junior High gymnasium and a new system at GUES.
The complete rework at GUES will replace the original system from when the school was built in 1989.
Innovative Mechanical – based out of Oklahoma City – was the lowest bid at $837,279 and was approximately $41,000 below the school district’s budget cost.
“Innovative has been a very good contractor for us,” Superintendent Dr. Mike Simpson told the school board members during the Monday morning meeting. “They did the work at the high school, they did the emergency work at the Junior High after the cafeteria flooded and also set the chiller at GUES and the Junior High.”
The HVAC upgrades are a part of the successful 2019 school bond measure passed by voters. The school district will seek reimbursement through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund.
Congress provided financial support for districts and schools through the ESSER fund to address the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Oklahoma received $160.9 million in ESSER I funding, another $665 million as part of the ESSER II funding and an additional $1.4 billion as part of the ESSER III funding.
The projects will begin during the summer break and a target completion date in early fall.
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