This summer, new schools maintenance director Kevin McCallister, with the help of assistant maintenance director Jason Beaty, is preparing to give the schools a major cleaning and make essential repairs that can’t be done when classes are in session.
“Essentially, we’re just going to go through and deep clean everything, and then we’re going to get into some maintenance stuff,” McCallister said. “Being my first year here, I have a list of things to do.”
The biggest project he’ll take on this summer will involve cleaning the floors and carpets in all the schools. “We’re going to … clean every inch of carpet. We are going to strip and rewax all of the hard floors.”
The gym floors will also be cleaned starting July 1, but they will not be sanded down and refinished this year. Instead, that is done every other year. “Because it’s costly and it takes a lot of time,” McCallister said.
One of the other big projects this year will be the repair of an air handler, a bulky 400-pound fan motor in the high school gym with worn-out bearings. A local contractor will do the labor for the repair.
For the past year or two, as the bearings have ground down, they’ve only been able to run the fan during events, so it’s one of his priorities this summer, McCallister said. “Because it gets really hot in that gym.”
He estimated the work at between $15,000 and $20,000. “It’s going to take a whole team of guys.”
Another project for the summer will involve lubricating all the building machinery, including the ventilation fans and pumps. “We’re going to grease everything that needs to be greased,” he said, adding that some valves on the heating system will be replaced.
The summer repair projects will include some stairs and decks at the elementary school, plus “kind of sprucing up the classrooms to make the classrooms more efficient,” he said. “We have eight or 10 requests already for new dry-erase boards.”
In addition to the deep clean on the inside, McCallister will also see to cleaning the outside. “We’re going to pressure wash the exterior of the schools, clean all the windows,” he said. “We’re going to get up there and wash the roofs, and make sure there are no leaks that need to be repaired over the summer.”
He also wants to make repairs to the brick and concrete walkway and the intake vents on the Reid Street side of the high school. “Those are letting water through the bricks or down the vents,” he said. “It’s causing water intrusion into the ceiling of the generator room.”
He plans to regrout the mortar between the bricks and reseal it with a waterproofing chemical to fix the leak.
While it’s not normally done over the summer break, McCallister will provide access for the high school basketball teams to practice in the gym during the month of June. “The kids want to get better in their craft,” he said. “I’m going to advocate for the kids, so I’ve decided to let them use the gym until July 1.”
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