Board of Ed approves bids for boardroom reconstruction, computers and toilet paper
Posted
Sam Inglot
Thursday, Feb. 21 — The Lansing Board of Education unanimously approved over $236,000 worth of purchase recommendations from the administration at tonight’s board meeting.
More than $200,000 to remove asbestos from the administration building and for supplies comes from the General Fund, while the rest will be spent on computers by buildings that need them.
On Dec. 8, part of the ceiling in the boardroom at the administration building collapsed and caused significant damage. Board meetings have taken place at Everett High School since the incident.
To fix the damage, the board approved spending $143,690 for asbestos abatement, air sampling and renovations at tonight’s meeting. Asbestos Abatement, Inc. of Lansing, Fibertec Industrial Hygiene Services of Holt and Envision Builders of Wixom, Mich., were awarded the contracts.
Board Treasurer Shirley Rodgers called the collapse a “catastrophic event.” She said the collapse exposed “a lot of asbestos” that needs to be cleaned before the room is used again.
“It’s not like we just decided to redecorate,” she joked.
Brian Ralph, the district’s chief operations officer, said the abatement and renovations would take about three months to complete. He said work would begin immediately.
The Board also approved a $34,800 contract with Hi-Tech System Service Inc., in Casco, Mich., for up to 100 refurbished computers for use throughout the district.
At last week’s work session when the bids were discussed, Joan Sawyer, interim director of technology for the district, said the computers were needed to supplement the computers the district already owns. She said some school buildings have “dated” computers and that refurbished models will offer a cheaper upgrade — about half as much as buying them new.
The last piece of business the board approved was a $58,000 contract with Lansing Sanitary Supply Inc. for custodial supplies like toilet paper, soap and paper towel through the rest of the fiscal year.
Earlier in the school year, the district received custodial supplies from an out-of-city vendor through a state program called MiDEAL, which allows school districts and municipalities to use state contracts to purchase goods and services.
But slow deliveries caused the district to wipe itself clean of the old supplier.
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