Jackson County School HVAC and Gymnasium Upgrades Going To Bid

School improvements through ESSER 2.0 funding were approved to bid out by the Jackson County School Board Thursday night.

Director of Schools Kristy Brown said the projects include HVAC replacements at Gainesboro Elementary and new sound systems in all the school gymnasiums.

“We’re going to try to get started on those as soon as we can,” Brown said. “We know that the contracted people are going to be limited with all of the schools in the state and the nation getting federal dollars to do these kinds of projects.”

Brown said she expects both projects to exceed $10,000 and bidders will need to give presentations before awarding the projects. Brown said that bids would be due May 26 at 4:00 PM, with presentations made by bidders during the next school board meeting on May 27.

“We’re looking at doing all of the sound systems, in all of the gymnasiums,” Brown said. “They’re just outdated and don’t sound very good. We have an opportunity to do this, to pay for this with some of the ESSER approved funds that we have for live streaming, audio/visual type equipment to do that more.”

Brown said that outdoor fields will also be considered for audio upgrades.

“Possibly, like the softball field doesn’t have a sound system, they’re using something else,” Brown said. “And kind of evaluate the football one too, just kind of the needs and get some specs together and bid that out as well.”

Brown said that the system will start taking bids on Monday. The Jackson County School System received roughly $1.7 million in ESSER 2.0 funding.