2 weeks, 4 days ago Mary Griffith
Systems at all five schools leak freon, have suffered over 25 compressor failures in 18 months
A member of the Quincy Public Schools Board of Education says that the condition of the heating and cooling systems in the five elementary schools is unacceptable, and he wants them fixed without costing taxpayers any money.
At Wednesday night's Board meeting, Board member Richard McNay says it is not fair to expect Quincy taxpayers to foot the bill to resolve problems with the malfunctioning HVAC systems at all five elementary schools. During the meeting, McNay told the public the Daikin brand HVAC systems have been troublesome from the start, malfunctioning shortly after they were installed during construction of the schools. The automatic cleaning filters in the HVAC systems have failed at all five elementary schools after only 6 years or less of use. In addition, freon is leaking from the HVAC systems and soaking the ceiling tiles, especially at Lincoln Douglas School. All 5 elementary schools have experienced a total of 26 compressor failures in the last 18 months, keeping the local maintenance staff working overtime to regulate temperatures in classrooms, which can be frigidly cold in the winter and exhaustively hot in the warmer months.
McNay told the school board the performance of the Daikin system is totally unacceptable. The Daikin system was chosen based on the recommendations of the architects who designed the new elementary schools. McNay wants to negotiate with the architects, the St. Louis company which installed the Daikin product, and Daikin itself to get financial relief to solve the on-going HVAC problems. McNay says using local property tax dollars to fix the massive problem is not fair to Quincy school district taxpayers because the system is faulty.
The School Board went into executive session to talk over the District's legal strategy about negotiations to solve the problem.
