Back on Sept. 14, Pleasant Valley Intermediate School had a smoke incident, but no fire. Still, it caused the school to evacuate all its students and staff, until the Polk Township Volunteer Fire Company chief could give the “all clear.”

Last Thursday, school board director Janet Dooner asked the administration for an update on the cause of the smoke.

Superintendent James Konrad said Randy Smale, the director of Operations for the school district, told him the heating and ventilation system is “at the end of its life.” He said Smale is looking into replacing it and that the system has been on the school district’s radar for a few years.

“It’s not meant as any criticism. It’s just because it affects so many people. It affects the teachers, the students, the families, fire departments; and I think there were several last time,” Dooner said. “I want the public to hear we’ve ha a little bit of discussion. I know their working hard.”

Konrad said as far as next steps, he knows this is on the Capital Improvement Plan, but as he understands it, ordering another system and having the old one replaced takes several months.

Randy Smale was not at the meeting to give an update, but Tammy Smale, his wife and the school district’s business manager, gave some input.

“The new chiller is done. They’re done with the installation; they just planning the transfer over to disconnect the old and connect the new one. And as for the air handlers, Dr. Konrad had it right on the nose, it’s a preventative maintenance. They do keep up with it. PVI is on the Capital Improvement,” Tammy Smale said.

Director Matthew Walters asked about having a third party come in and do an inspection of the motors. He thinks this might be outside the scope of the work the district’s maintenance department can do.

Konrad said he asked the Operations director a similar question and was told that the district’s maintenance crew can do the work. He said

The biggest issue, Konrad said, is that the integrity of the mechanisms is “just burning out.”

“We could have another false alarm again,” he said. “

Konrad said that does an excellent job in its evacuation. The loss of learning that day was minimal, because the students and staff were able to get back in the building fairly quickly.