WINONA – Winona Secondary School will be getting a facelift, but it is far from just cosmetic. The savings on utilities is expected to pay for the work.
Ryan Burrage, business development executive with Entegrity, an Arkansas company that makes schools more energy efficient, came before the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School Board Tuesday night to update members on the plan to make Winona Secondary School more energy efficient and comfortable for students and teachers.
The price of the project is $1.89 million, and the school district will finance project.
“I recommend lease purchase loans and use the utility savings and [past maintenance expense] savings to pay for it,” Burrage said.
According to Burrage, last summer, plans were underway to replace the school’s nearly all the windows with energy efficient ones, convert all the lighting to LED, replace part of the building’s roof that leaks, and upgrade HVAC systems. They even went as far as consulting with an architect, Richard McNeal with JBHM of Jackson. Due to the age of the building, McNeal urged the district to check with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History before beginning.
Winona Secondary School was built in 1925. Although the school is not on the historic registry, Mississippi Department of Archives and History made a site visit and recommended the school either take the existing steel windows out, one-by-one, ship them off to be restored, and re-install them. This was not feasible for the district because classes would be in session while the windows were out of the building.
MDAH also recommended the district have custom replicas made of the existing metal windows. An estimate to have this done was $4.8 million, three times the cost for the entire project.
After discussing the options with MDAH and informing them that neither option was feasible for the school district, the district got the go-ahead to move forward with the original project.
“I want to say Senator [Lydia] Chassaniol helped us a lot with this,” Dr. Teresa Jackson, superintendent of education, told the board.
Because the school board already agreed to the price and signed a contract with Entegrity, prior to meeting with MDAH, the board gave Burrage the nod to move forward with the project.
“We will proceed in getting financing complete,” Burrage said. “We will complete the work over the summer.
The board also approved moving forward with installing air conditioning and heating in J.J. Knox Gymnasium, however, it will be done in the next fiscal year (July 2020). Jackson said the district wants the gym to be a multi-purpose arena for the district. In the past, the Tigers only played basketball there, however, now the district’s archery team is using it. Next year, the new Tiger volleyball team will call the gym home as well.
In other business:
• Winona Alderwoman Sarah Minnieweather expressed her opposition to the city’s process for appointing a new trustee to the Winona School Board.
“I thought [the vacant position] would be public,” Minnieweather said. “I know it was posted on the [district’s] website but my constituents didn’t see it nor did I.”
Minnieweather said the current racial makeup of the board is not reflective of the student population.
“I think with the makeup of the school, there should be more blacks on the school board,” Minnieweather said.
Currently, the Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School Board is made up of four white members and one black member.
Board President Matt Surrell told Minnieweather that the district had followed the city’s policy in filling the position.
“We feel like we followed the policies given to us by the Board of Aldermen,” Surrell said.
• Winona resident Sylvia Clark asked the board to consider naming the Winona Secondary School auditorium after the late Arthur Winbush, who served as principal and music teacher at the school for many years. The board said they would take the request up at a later meeting.
