Nitschmann Classrooms to Get New Cooling Unit

Two windowless classrooms at Nitschmann Middle School will get a new air conditioning unit to replace the 34-year-old unit that has failed permanently, but not until next year, officials said Monday evening.

Despite a shortfall in the proposed budget for the 2011-2012 school year, Bethlehem Area School Board directors agreed at the facilities committee meeting to put out a call for non-binding bids to replace the worn-out commercial roof unit with a residential roof unit to cool the two approximately 900-square-foot 7th-grade classrooms.

District engineers recommended the purchase of a residential-grade unit, estimated at a total cost of about $25,000, saying it is about half the cost of a comparable commercial unit.

“Realizing Nitschman is 10 years away from major renovations, you wouldn't want to apply a 25-year solution,” said engineering consultant Mark Stein. “To provide a commercial unit would be about $25,000 per room.”

Stein said the residential unit is sufficient to cool the space and would last about 10 years, as opposed to the more expensive commercial type which would have an estimated lifespan of about 25.

The rooms are in a 1950s addition to the building. A renovation in the late 1960s blocked the classrooms' windows, and at that time the rooms were redesigned to be air conditioned, Stein said.

Most of the school does not have cooling, and nearly all the other classrooms have windows.

Pennsylvania Department of Education rules state that windowless classrooms must be air conditioned, consulting engineers noted. Even though it is only April, the classrooms are already becoming stuffy and hot, they added

Board directors briefly debated whether the expense could be spared by relocating the classes, possibly to other district schools, though some questioned whether that would be more expensive than the maintenance project. In the end they agreed the unit would have to be replaced.

“The failure of this unit means the classes will have to find alternatives for this spring,” Superintendent Joseph Roy said. Classes will likely use the library, space in the auditorium and other areas in the school temporarily as the weather turns warmer.

The rooftop air conditioning unit will be in addition to the school's planned boiler project, officials said.

Likely, the unit will be replaced over the summer and be in place for the 2011-2012 school year, Roy said.