Saline Schools To Be Overhauled Over The Summer

NOTE: A previous version of this article did not include the statement from Jade Warner.

Schools across Saline are going to get a flurry of renovations over the course of this upcoming summer. There is quite a lot of work to be done, but it was passed with confidence that this summer’s work can be completed before fall 2022.

“Timelines are always difficult because it requires all of those different entities to be working together. But that is why you have a construction management team and an architectural team, which we do,” Superintendent Steve Laatsch said.

Saline Middle School is going to get $2,577,656 worth of renovations to its building. Clark Construction Company – a Lansing-based construction firm that Saline has long worked with – will be overseeing a new floor and bleachers for the gymnasium. According to the board packet, Clark will be working with subcontractors to install new electronic drinking fountains, a new chilled heating and hot water system, new boilers and boilers, a new glycol makeup unit, new chemical shot feeders, and a new sewage ejector sump pump.

“The middle school gym is huge, which is nice. But it is very outdated. This has been part of the process – part three of our latest bond proposal and we are now in a position to redo it. We’re really excited about it – it will benefit our kids, our community, and it will also include a project where we have really old boilers in the community. That is also in works too. That helps with the heating and cooling system because it is super outdated. It also helps out with making it an energy efficient building too,” Superintendent Steve Laatsch said. “We’re confident that we can hit these timelines. It just requires flexibility.”

Laatsch added that if the work isn’t completely finished, teachers will be able to work around any inconveniences while work wraps up.

“I’m sure the gym has been renovated several times. It is fairly massive, 26,000 square feet or so,” Clark Constructions’ Jade Warner said. Clark Construction will “be putting in a new bleacher system and an athletic system that is 14 millimeters in depth.”

Clark will be using the budget to subcontract $245,000 worth of general trade work through Whitmore Lake-based Axiom Construction and $143,860 worth of electrical work through Ann Arbor-based Huron Valley Electric. The bleachers will be supplied through Kalamazoo-based Interkal for $144,078 and $434,970 worth of floor work will be done through Wixom-based Foster Specialty Floors.

Ann Arbor-based John Darr Mechanical will handle Plumbing and HVAC work through the biggest part of the budget, worth $1,165,000. The rest of the budget will go towards a $53,323 “Field GC’s”, a $149,304 contingency fee, and a $242,122 construction management fee.

But that isn’t all that is going to be replaced at Saline Middle School. The Board also approved over half a million dollars to replace and improve the boiler and provide further improvements to the gymnasium, Tuesday evening. Ann Arbor-based Nova Environmental Inc. will be paid $70,016 and Total Environmental Services will be paid $468,000 for microscopy work.

And then there are the roofing contracts. Harvest Elementary School and Saline High School will be the only buildings in the district that are not going to see their tops ripped off and replaced with all new roofs this summer.

Pleasant Ridge, Woodland, Heritage, and Liberty Schools will all see their roofs replaced this summer on a $3,228,593 budget. Whitmore Lake-based CEI Michigan will be paid $1,30,460 to replace the roof of Pleasant Ridge Elementary School. Quality Roofing, also of Whitmore Lake, will replace the roofs of Woodland Meadows, Heritage, and Liberty Schools with a $1,001,967 budget. The recommendations for both companies came from Northville-based Lecole Planners, according to the packet.

Image Credit: Scot Graden, former superintendent of Saline Area Schools.