LORANGER - The Tangipahoa Parish School Board voted to approve bids to bring HVAC systems to the gymnasiums of eight schools that do not have them on Tuesday.

Tangipahoa School Board President Brett Duncan told WBRZ it has taken years to get the funding together.

“They’re all being done at the same time. This meeting tonight is just to approve the bids for this first round, but the other ones are coming right behind it,” Duncan said.

Duncan said most of the work is being paid for through ESSER dollars, federal funding from the COVID pandemic.

“Where the funding isn’t going to cover it all, we have some other maintenance and construction funding,” Duncan said.

Hammond Eastside Magnet Lower and Ponchatoula High School were both absent from the new gym HVAC system list. WBRZ reported in August about both schools suffering from air-conditioning related issues. Duncan said an emergency resolution was passed recently to handle those issues.

“A meeting before last, we approved an emergency resolution to address those emergency issues. That dealt with mildew and mold issues, some air conditioning repairs, and some electricity outages. These are things we have to deal with all the time," Duncan said. “The vast majority are between 40 and 60 years old, so there’s always a significant amount of maintenance that we’re having to work through.”

Duncan added the school system handled the power issue and also hired a new contractor for the south end of the parish, Johnson Controls.

“That’s what was happening at Hammond Eastside. There was a contractor on hand who was supposed to be doing preventative maintenance, but they weren’t getting the job done,” he said.

Also on the agenda is an item to approve administrative action to move forward with bringing a new STEM lab to Kentwood High Magnet School and Independence High Magnet School. There was also an item concerning bid approval for roof replacement at Kentwood High.

The meeting took place at the Loranger High School Library, located at 19404 Hiatt Street, Loranger, LA.