(KAIR)--The air conditioning unit at Atchison County Community High School is on it's last legs, but officials are making plans to replace the old unit before school starts again in August.

Superintendent Steve Wiseman says that district officials met with their energy engineering partners Thursday morning at the school to gather specifics specs on the system and determine what needs to be done. He adds that local contractors will be able to conduct a walk through with school officials to assess the old system. They will then be asked to submit bids to the district after being sent specific specs for the project. Wiseman says bids will be due by May 30th, and he hopes to have a special school board meeting by the first week of June to accept the low bid.

Wiseman says that while the solution to addressing the district’s aging facilities is not a simple one, he has proposed a plan to the board that he says is an opportunity to take advantage of legislation that was recently passed by state lawmakers in response to a State Supreme Court ruling, that would fully fund the district's Local Option Budget. He says this means that the district will get a shift in money of about $136,000 from the state. So what they can do is pass a four mill capital outlay resolution. The tax base, in terms of the mill levy would not change over the upcoming school year, compared to what it is now. Wiseman says they see this as an opportunity to get a four mill capital outlay resolution without raising taxes.

Wiseman says all this is important because the district is already planning for a $240,000 roof replacement at the elementary school, and with the air conditioning project estimated to come in anywhere from $180,000 to $250,000, approximately half of the capitol outlay balance would be gone.