Woodstock races to prepare school’s balky heating system for another winter as vote on new school building looms
Published on September 17, 2023 in Valley News
By Frances Mize
Fundraising efforts for a new Woodstock Union Middle and High School building have crested the $3 million mark, according to Mountain Views Supervisory Union officials.
Voters in the supervisory union — which includes the towns of Woodstock, Barnard, Bridgewater, Pomfret, Reading, Killington and Plymouth — will be asked in March 2024 to approve an $85 million bond to fund construction of the new building, said Ben Ford, the School Board’s vice chairman.
Meanwhile, the supervisory union’s buildings and grounds crew is working overtime to brace the school’s existing 60-year-old structure for the upcoming heating season.
Last March, the supervisory union’s voters gave approval to replace the aging steam system with a $1.3 million hot water heating alternative. The high school portion of the building weathered “multiple failures” last winter in its steam heating system, said Joe Rigoli, buildings and grounds director.
The 2021-2022 school year saw upwards of $150,000 in heating and cooling repairs, Rigoli said.
He hasn’t crunched the numbers on this past year’s repairs but said they likely put the supervisory union out again for about the same amount.
Maintenance workers have been putting in double shifts to replace the old system before cold weather sets in, Rigoli said.
“We’ve got about four weeks and, fingers crossed, we can get it done,” he said. “I’m fairly confident it can happen, but we’ll be working Saturdays.”
Despite the price tag and the rush, the effort is being made in a building that some school officials hope will be demolished within the next five years. Last year, the Vermont Agency of Education ranked the Woodstock Union Middle and High School — which serves around 440 students — as having the second-worst facility condition in the state, based on the depleted value of the building. The agency recommended total renovation.