The Mehlville Board of Education unanimously approved a bid at its meeting Nov. 17 to improve HVAC at four schools.

The board approved a $2.693 million bid with Integrated Facility Services for HVAC work at Mehlville High School, Blades Elementary, Oakville High School and John Cary Early Childhood Education Center.

The HVAC work at MHS will be paid through Proposition S funds, the $35-million no-tax-rate increase bond measure approved in 2021 for facilities. The work at Blades, OHS and John Cary are funded through Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money.

Prop S update

Superintendent Chris Gaines also provided the board with a Prop S update.

“We’ve been building stuff – trying to anyway,” Gaines said. “We have a bunch of stuff that we’ve wrapped up.”

According to Gaines, work at Bierbaum is moving along nicely and making “steady progress.” The project will continue through the rest of the school year and into the summer.

Work at Blades is also progressing steadily, with Gaines estimating that some of the renovated spaces will be functional by early 2023.

Bernard Middle, Oakville Elementary and Rogers Elementary are delayed due to supply chain challenges related to windows, doors and door hardware.

“Those are the projects that just keep going on and on and on and on,” Gaines said. “But we’re still slowly chugging forward.”

Upcoming bids include Bierbaum phase two in January, entrances for Hagemann, Point and Trautwein elementaries in February 2023; and then packages for Washington Middle and Buerkle Middle and John Cary Early Childhood Education Center in May and July of next year respectively.

As of Nov. 17, the district has spent about $8.44 million of Prop S funds, with about $29.16 million remaining.