By SANDY SEAL / L’Observateur / November 9, 1998

RESERVE – East St. John High School’s air conditioning problem should befixed soon.

On Thursday, the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board accepted the bidof $426,000 from Blanchard Mechanical Contractors of Roseland for renovations to the air conditioning system in the gymnasium and the school’s cooling towers.

A company official told board members the cooling towers would be ordered Friday morning and the maximum contract time on the job would be 90s days. He added the company hopes to complete most of the workduring the holidays.

The board also approved other expenditures for repairs and replacements at schools around the parish.

They include: Approximately $6,800 for lockers for the boys’ and girls’ lockerrooms at Leon Godchaux Junior High. There are no lockers in the dressing roomspresently. The original request was for 60 lockers (30 for eachlockerroom), but the motion approved states that no more than 45 lockers could be purchased for each lockerroom. That came after board membersagreed 30 lockers may not be enough because of the large size of some physical education classes. Board members also asked that alternatives,such as donated lockers from area industry, be checked before the purchase is made.

Approximately $39,000 for the replacement of 636 book lockers at East St. John High School. $351,000 for the purchase of six regular buses, 1 smaller bus and two 16-passenger vans to update and upgrade the bus fleet. The funds willcome from the Construction II fund, which had a surplus at the end of the 1997-98 fiscal year. The addition of the buses will help alleviateproblems with transporting athletic teams and other school groups, officials said.

The school board also approved the administration’s request to solicit proposals for replacement and repair to the intercom system at West St.

John High School, despite the objections of board members James Madere and Aleitha Bardell, who said problems exist with intercom systems at other schools as well and each should be addressed at the same time.

Board president Richard DeLong asked Superintendent Cleveland Farlough to give a report at the next board meeting on other intercom problems which need to be addressed.

The board also approved a request to solicit bids for ADA modifications to the St. John Redirection Center and agreed to the sale of two surplusportable buildings for $100 each to builder Lee Roy Kyzar of Hammond.

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