First responders who visit Windsor High School and Windsor Elementary School apparently can have some trouble using their radios there, but a fix is on the way.
Windsor C-1 Board of Education members voted 6-0 Aug. 26 to award a $184,731 contract to Schaeffer Electric in St. Louis to upgrade communications technology in the two school buildings.
The company submitted the lowest of three bids for the work at Windsor High School and Windsor Elementary School.
Digital antenna systems will be installed in both buildings to boost the signals for radios used by first responders, district officials said.
“If there would be emergency response personnel on campus, we had some dead spots where their phones wouldn’t work,” Assistant Superintendent Jeff Buscher said. “(Schaeffer) will be making technology enhancements for the buildings.”
He said the communication problems arose after improvements were completed in both schools, as part of the $14.5 million bond issue voters approved in April 2017.
“We extended the buildings at Windsor Elementary and at Windsor High School,” Buscher said.
At Windsor Elementary, a new wing was added, and at the high school, a new 715-seat auditorium and entrance were completed.
All five schools in the district had work done under the bond issue, but communications problems for first responders only have been found at Windsor Elementary and Windsor High, Buscher said.
He said the work will need to take place outside of regular school hours and is expected to begin soon.
“All the work has to be done with no students in the buildings,” Buscher said. “We anticipate all the work happening at night and over winter break. We anticipate it all being done by Jan. 1.”
Board member Steve Meinberg was absent from the meeting.