Wheaton School to make improvements over summer
April 3, 2019
Vinnie Roberts
During this year’s summer break, Wheaton R-III’s School Board voted to make renovations a priority. The board recently accepted to the bid of CTS Group, an energy services group out of St. Louis.
Over the summer, CTS will be in the school tearing out dysfunctional or broken items at the school and replacing them. CTS will hire outside contractors to do the bulk of their work while a project manager from CTS supervises the effort.
CTS group, according to their website www.ctsgroup.com, is a company that helps to identify energy saving and electronic efficiency issues within a site, brainstorm a plan of action, and screen and hire contractors on behalf of their customers. The company boasts expertise in HVAC systems, geothermal heating and cooling systems, building control systems, lighting motors, drivers and energy efficient construction.
The company has a healthy working relationship with many area schools, having also completed projects for Cassville, Southwest, Monett, Mount Vernon, Lamar, and many others. CTS claims that 70 percent of their work is currently coming from repeat business from districts that they have already serviced.
According to Wheaton Superintendent Lance Massey, CTS has worked with the district before and performed above and beyond the board’s expectations.
“They did an outstanding job,” said Massey. “We couldn’t have been happier with the work that they did. They did everything that they promised us that they would do. They didn’t come to us with change orders or hiked prices. Whenever we settled on a project, they completed in a very timely fashion. They have a manager on-site hired by CTS. He was on site every day from the beginning of the project to the completion of the project.”
At a meeting of the Wheaton School board on Tuesday night, March 19, CTS outlined their plans for moving forward with construction on the facility. According to regional project manager Sage Acorn, who gave the latter half of the presentation, CTS has been on site at the school several times in the last week identifying areas within the school that need the most work.
The role of CTS in renovations will be to act as a middle-man to help identify the school’s energy saving and safety needs and screen contractors to bring before the board in order to complete the job.
“We accepted a proposal from CTS to use them as a bidder,” stated Massey. “From this point on, they will bring us recommendations of what they want to work on. When they come back with solid numbers, we will approve a bid if we like the numbers.”
According to CTS representatives in the meeting, the company has been onsite at the school several times in the previous month to identify various energy problems within the school. From those walkthroughs, CTS was able to assemble a preliminary plan of action that they presented to the board on Tuesday.
In the High School building, CTS plans to replace several windows around the facility that are either in disrepair or are letting in outside air. In order to do this, CTS not only plans to fully replace the windows and hardware with newer, tinted windows, they also plan to make renovations to the stone around the windows to ensure that construction doesn’t lead to further air leaks.
The group also recommended that three doors within the facility be fully replaced due to the current doors sporting damaged panic bars and troubles latching completely. CTS representatives stated that they not only plan to replace the doors but also work with the contractors involved in the doors’ security upgrades to ensure that the security system transfers to the new doors.
The group stated that they planned to replace some of the metal trim around the roof of the building that had been damaged during its years of service. In addition to this, CTS also plans identified several leaky areas of the roof that have been letting water into the school. Rather than replacing the metal roof, CTS has recommended that a special rubber-like coating be added to the roof that would be strong enough to both stop leaks and prevent any further wear and tear on the roof.
In the Wheaton Preschool facility, CTS group plans to renovate some aspects of the electrical system as well as replace an electrical panel that has become damaged due to some years of disrepair.
CTS Group closed their presentation by offering the board a preliminary price window of $508,705 - $783,767. This price isn’t final however, as the group is still meeting with contractors. A final price for the total projects is expected to be delivered sometime within the next week. Additionally, the board retains the right to reject or amend any part of the proposed project.
According to Massey, this project will not cost the residents of the Wheaton area any additional money, as the school district already possesses the funds for the construction.
“It will come out of our Fund Four accounts,” said Massey. “That’s money that we put back for general repairs and those types of things.”
CTS will present Massey and the board with the final numbers for their proposed projects within the week. Should the board decide to move forward, construction will begin over Wheaton’s summer break.
Vinnie Roberts
During this year’s summer break, Wheaton R-III’s School Board voted to make renovations a priority. The board recently accepted to the bid of CTS Group, an energy services group out of St. Louis.
Over the summer, CTS will be in the school tearing out dysfunctional or broken items at the school and replacing them. CTS will hire outside contractors to do the bulk of their work while a project manager from CTS supervises the effort.
CTS group, according to their website www.ctsgroup.com, is a company that helps to identify energy saving and electronic efficiency issues within a site, brainstorm a plan of action, and screen and hire contractors on behalf of their customers. The company boasts expertise in HVAC systems, geothermal heating and cooling systems, building control systems, lighting motors, drivers and energy efficient construction.
The company has a healthy working relationship with many area schools, having also completed projects for Cassville, Southwest, Monett, Mount Vernon, Lamar, and many others. CTS claims that 70 percent of their work is currently coming from repeat business from districts that they have already serviced.
According to Wheaton Superintendent Lance Massey, CTS has worked with the district before and performed above and beyond the board’s expectations.
“They did an outstanding job,” said Massey. “We couldn’t have been happier with the work that they did. They did everything that they promised us that they would do. They didn’t come to us with change orders or hiked prices. Whenever we settled on a project, they completed in a very timely fashion. They have a manager on-site hired by CTS. He was on site every day from the beginning of the project to the completion of the project.”
At a meeting of the Wheaton School board on Tuesday night, March 19, CTS outlined their plans for moving forward with construction on the facility. According to regional project manager Sage Acorn, who gave the latter half of the presentation, CTS has been on site at the school several times in the last week identifying areas within the school that need the most work.
The role of CTS in renovations will be to act as a middle-man to help identify the school’s energy saving and safety needs and screen contractors to bring before the board in order to complete the job.
“We accepted a proposal from CTS to use them as a bidder,” stated Massey. “From this point on, they will bring us recommendations of what they want to work on. When they come back with solid numbers, we will approve a bid if we like the numbers.”
According to CTS representatives in the meeting, the company has been onsite at the school several times in the previous month to identify various energy problems within the school. From those walkthroughs, CTS was able to assemble a preliminary plan of action that they presented to the board on Tuesday.
In the High School building, CTS plans to replace several windows around the facility that are either in disrepair or are letting in outside air. In order to do this, CTS not only plans to fully replace the windows and hardware with newer, tinted windows, they also plan to make renovations to the stone around the windows to ensure that construction doesn’t lead to further air leaks.
The group also recommended that three doors within the facility be fully replaced due to the current doors sporting damaged panic bars and troubles latching completely. CTS representatives stated that they not only plan to replace the doors but also work with the contractors involved in the doors’ security upgrades to ensure that the security system transfers to the new doors.
The group stated that they planned to replace some of the metal trim around the roof of the building that had been damaged during its years of service. In addition to this, CTS also plans identified several leaky areas of the roof that have been letting water into the school. Rather than replacing the metal roof, CTS has recommended that a special rubber-like coating be added to the roof that would be strong enough to both stop leaks and prevent any further wear and tear on the roof.
In the Wheaton Preschool facility, CTS group plans to renovate some aspects of the electrical system as well as replace an electrical panel that has become damaged due to some years of disrepair.
CTS Group closed their presentation by offering the board a preliminary price window of $508,705 - $783,767. This price isn’t final however, as the group is still meeting with contractors. A final price for the total projects is expected to be delivered sometime within the next week. Additionally, the board retains the right to reject or amend any part of the proposed project.
According to Massey, this project will not cost the residents of the Wheaton area any additional money, as the school district already possesses the funds for the construction.
“It will come out of our Fund Four accounts,” said Massey. “That’s money that we put back for general repairs and those types of things.”
CTS will present Massey and the board with the final numbers for their proposed projects within the week. Should the board decide to move forward, construction will begin over Wheaton’s summer break.