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District talks supply chain issues | Local News

At their Tuesday meeting, the Citrus County School Board discussed how supply chain issues are affecting the district and progress at the Academy of Environmental Science (AES).

District mulls increased prices, supply chain issues  

School board member Doug Dodd expressed concern over the $897,169 bid for a Lecanto High School (LHS) fire alarm system upgrade and replacement. “Not just the amount of the bid,” he said, “but the fact that there was only one bidder,” is concerning. 

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Doug Dodd

Dodd


According to Eric Stokes, director of district facilities and maintenance, this is not an isolated incident. In the past month, four other jobs had single bidders. 

Dodd also said the engineer’s estimate of $667,000 was significantly lower than the bid. “I just wanted to discuss with the board if we wanted to try to send this out for re-bid,” he added.

“The industry right now is overwhelmed,” Stokes said. “Construction prices are through the roof.” In addition, the district’s original budget for the project topped $1 million, based on historical data and industry standards. 

Stokes also gave board members a rundown on the history of the LHS fire alarm system. The original system was built in 1983 and in 2000, they did an overhaul of the system. 

The system is nearly 40 years old and Stokes said many of the parts have become obsolete. “We can’t service them.”

“If a system goes offline,” Stokes said, “we do have choices.” In this worst case scenario, the district would have to hire full time fire watch employees. However, Stokes said his department is seeing no change in the industry as far as cost.

Stokes also said in the past year, the system has undergone 22 work orders. The bottom line: “The system is failing,” Stokes said. 

“I don’t see that we can delay,” School board member Sandy Counts said. “I don’t want to wait another year with a 40-year-old system.”






Sandy Counts

Counts


Board members discussed the unknowns of the future in relation to continuing price increases and supply chain issues. Ultimately, they unanimously agreed the safer option was to move forward with the upgrade.  

Checking in with AES

AES president Ernie Hopper gave a report on the happenings at the Crystal River charter school since he became the first full time principal in April, 2021.

Recently, AES finished their annual recruitment meetings with Citrus County’s middle school students. “I’m happy to say we did have 331 applications,” he said. 

The record number of applications will be reviewed to fill the 60 to 70 available spots for freshman at the academy, Hopper said. “Students talk to students and that’s why I think our numbers are so great.”

In addition, Hopper gave an update on the progress on the AES scuba certification program. The final group of the year begins classes in late February. Twenty-eight sophomore students participated in this year’s sessions.

Since the beginning of the program, approximately 160 students have been scuba certified, Hopper said. “We want students that go through AES to become stewards of the environment.” 

For more information on the agenda or to view full policies and items, visit tinyurl.com/t6phzraj. To watch the meeting video, visit youtube.com/user/ CitrusSchools.

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