Meridian Public School District construction and improvement projects funded through COVID-19 pandemic relief laws are drawing to a close as the school board on Monday approved the final project bid — a re-bid of an earlier roofing project that hit a snag — during its regular monthly meeting.
The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, more commonly known as ESSER, is the portion of three pandemic relief laws that allocated about $190 billion in aid to states and school districts nationwide. The funding aimed at making schools safer for in-person learning and addressed educational issues that resulted from the pandemic.
ESSER III funding expires on Sept. 30, so the Meridian district had until then to commit the last of its funding. ESSER I and II funds have already expired.
“Finally, and I do say finally with a great deal of relief, this will be our final ESSER bid,” Clay Sims, the district’s director of operations, told board members. “We are requesting approval of a re-bid of a re-roofing project at Ross Collins. When that project got started and got underway, we realized we had a lot more problems than we really anticipated.”
The ESSER-funded project originally started several months ago, but wet insulation under the roof due to leaks was discovered. After a re-evaluation of the project, it was decided the best course forward was to halt the Ross Collins project, close out the work that had already been done and re-bid the project with the additional work needed to replace the extensive insulation damage.
In a 5-0 vote, the board accepted the recommended bid of $559,400 from low bidder Independent Roofing Systems to complete the Ross Collins project.
Sims said the re-bid work will address all of the issues encountered by removing and replacing the center’s roofing system.
For Mississippi public schools, which have long gone underfunded by the state Legislature, the ESSER money has been much-needed relief, especially to districts like Meridian with its aging buildings and infrastructure.
Altogether, MPSD received about $48.5 million from the three ESSER packages, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Stabilization Fund data. The district has used the funding for a wide-range of projects from initially stocking up on masks, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies to improving air quality in schools to adding class space on crowded campuses to installing touchless plumbing fixtures to helping students catch up on missed learning during the pandemic.
The ESSER projects, combined with work being funded by a 2022 school bond issue, have been increasingly noticeable at the district’s schools over the last few years.
The school board took action on two other ESSER-funded projects at Monday’s meeting.
The board voted to approve two change orders to roofing work at Crestwood Elementary. One of the change orders addressed wet insulation that was also discovered there and needs to be replaced. The second change order addressed damaged and inadequate drain piping on the roof.
“During the work it was determined there was additional insulation that was soaked as they were removing the old roofing and that was beyond what was initially anticipated, so we needed a change order to do additional insulation,” Sims told board members.
He said some collapsed drains were also discovered at Crestwood which was causing some of the roofing and insulation problems.
The two change orders increased the project cost from $443,000 to $475,922.
In a third ESSER-funded project discussed at the meeting, the school board voted to officially approve a contract with McLain Plumbing and Electrical Inc., which previously was awarded the low bid of $388,000 to replace the cooling tower for the HVAC system at Carver Elementary.
In other business, the school board officially approved the contract with Act Global for removing and replacing the artificial turf at Ray Stadium. The $369,836 price tag for the project will be nearly $20,000 more than the bid accepted by the board at its March meeting.
“In the process of evaluating the bid, we identified a few revisions that needed to be made that increased the project some to $369,836,” Sims said. “There was some additional fees that we noted in the process of evaluating the turf.”
The school board also voted to approve $50,000 in additional support from the district maintenance budget to the athletic department at the request of Meridian Athletic Director Cheyenne Trussell. He told board members not only has the cost of equipment increased dramatically, but so has the cost of feeding athletes during away games, hiring sports officials, and professional development classes for coaches.
“When I took over as athletic director in 2002, a helmet was between $50 and $75. Now that same helmet is between $250 and $300,” Trussell said.
He said the district is seeing more students wanting to participate in sports than in past years with 170 students, including middle schoolers, currently taking part in track. He said the football team currently has drawn the interest of 110 students.
“We’re looking at probably starting the season with between 95 and 100,” he said of the football team. “That’s the largest the program has been in at least 10 years or more.”
The school board approved his request for additional funding, which Trussell hopes will be offset by sponsorships he is seeking for the new Jumbotron-style video and scoreboard that will go up at Ray Stadium this summer and could bring in as much as $80,000 in marketing revenue.