All three buildings whose heating systems the board will discuss have students in grades kindergarten to eight.
HOLYOKE -- The School Committee Tuesday will discuss pursuit of state funding to renovate heating systems at the city's Morgan, E.N. White and Kelly schools.
The meeting is at 6:30 p.m. at Dean Technical High School in the Fifield Community Room, 1045 Main St.
"The boilers are working fine and generating heat. They are older and a new boiler would increase efficiency and reduce utility costs," said Leonard S. Gibbons, School Department director of technology and operations.
Gibbons said officials don't have estimates for the costs of replacing the schools' heating systems. Four years ago, replacing the boiler at Lawrence School on Cabot Street cost about $300,000.
The School Committee will be asked to begin the process of seeking funding for the projects by submitting statements of interest to the state School Building Authority for E.N. White, 1 Jefferson St.; Morgan, 596 South Bridge St.; and Kelly, 216 West St., Gibbons said. All three schools have students in grades kindergarten to eight.
The plan is to submit statements of interest for the E.N. White and Morgan schools under the accelerated program of the state authority, which provides funding only for equipment within the boiler room. At Kelly School, work is needed on the air handlers connected to the boilers, which is work that falls outside the scope of the accelerated repair program, Gibbons said.
The Legislature established the authority in 2004 to replace the former School Building Assistance Bureau. An authority is a government body given a particular kind of power -- in this case, to work with cities and towns to fund capital improvements in schools with grants and a reimbursement system.
The authority gets the money for such projects with a dedicated revenue stream of one penny of the state’s 6.25-percent sales tax, according to the authority website.