At a special meeting held Monday, the Mt. Lake Public School Board opted to not proceed with an HVAC project in the auditorium area of the school.
Board Chair Chad Pedersen said that the district planned to use Esser III funds to pay for the project, with the hopes that there were enough funds available to do multiple projects.
But at Monday’s meeting, bids for the proposed HVAC project in the auditorium alone came in at over $1 million, meaning the district would have needed to use money from its general fund to cover half of the project.
Pedersen said the district will look at other options to address air quality needs in the building. It also will pursue other avenues to use the roughly $500,000 in Esser III funds the district has to use by September. Likely uses for the money include upgrading technology and server capacity within the school.