Heat turned up (way up) at Helen Baker School

The Glencoe-Silver Lake School Board learned heating problems have arisen at Helen Baker Elementary School and scheduled a work session on Monday, Nov. 24, to further discuss the issues and how to resolve them.
“Last week, Brady (Flaherty, facilities manager), Michelle (Sander, business manager), and Jamie (Alsleben, board member) and I met in an emergency meeting to discuss the heating problems at Helen Baker. Some of the classrooms are at 98 degrees, 99 degrees, and cannot be adjusted,” Board Member Jason Lindeman said.
“Basically, Brady said there are air leaks in the system and they are troubleshooting the air pressure right now,” Lindeman said.
Flaherty said the heat in the building is controlled by a pneumatic system, and since starting the boilers, he has been troubleshooting some air pressure issues.
“Brady said with an air leak, we don’t get enough pressure built up to close the heating valves on the distribution of heat and some areas end up overheating,” Lindeman said.
He also noted that solder joints in the air piping are coming apart. “At every coupling or fitting in the system, there is a solder joint. There could be thousands in the building,” Lindeman said.
He added that maintenance workers would have to go through the walls to find some of the broken solder joints, as well as the ceiling, “but there’s asbestos in the ceiling, so we can’t do that,” Lindeman said.

For more on this issue, see the Nov. 19 print edition of The Chronicle.