P1 Group Solves Facility Maintenance Challenges at Paola High School

P1 Group Performance Solutions Team Goes to the Head of the Class

When a vendor working with Paola USD 368 discovered sludge and other performance issues with the high school’s 30-year-old hydronic piping system, he thought P1’s Performance Solutions group might be just the team for the job.

As a prestigious partner with the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB), P1 Group already had a relationship with Paola superintendent Matt Meeks. P1 Group connected with Matt during KASB BOLD, an educational program for new superintendents for which P1 Group provided training in our Lenexa Training Facility.

“The P1 Team walked the property in a discovery phase and found the piping was compromised and failing due to material type, installation methods, and the fact the piping system was full of solids/sludge,” Rusty Roderick, Vice President, explained.

After extensive performance testing of the system, P1 Group made the following plan recommendation:

• Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) These have already been installed to reduce the flow going through the pipe so the leaks wouldn’t be compounded. This also bought time until the rest of the work can be completed.
• Sidestream Centrifugal Separator Filtration System This has also already been installed to remove existing sludge and sediment in the system, prevent future build-up, and minimize the risk of contaminating the new boiler plant and piping.
• 150 Devices Repiped P1 Group will repipe the branch piping in the entire building from the mains to all the hot water terminal devices (not the mains themselves)
• Boiler Plant Replacement P1 Group also found the school was using electric boilers, which not only had sludge and performance issues, but also cost approximately four to five times more than natural gas. P1 Group’s energy conservation solution is to replace these with a new hybrid high-efficiency natural gas boiler plant.
• $1,033,900: Total cost of the project

The replacement of the boiler plant alone will save the district approximately $70K annually, which will help fund the overall project.

While the VFDs and filtration system have already been installed to minimize continuing damage for the time being, the bulk of the work won’t take place until school is out this summer.

Once school is out, P1 Group will have just nine weeks to complete all the work before school starts again.

“The challenge in the K-12 sector or with any public entity is they want a turnkey solution,” Rusty said. “P1 can provide all of it: discover the problem, engineer the solution and implement the solution.”

“P1 Group is using a design-build approach on this project, allowing us to compress the timeline to meet the tight summer turnaround,” Rusty said.

Rusty also notes how critical manpower numbers are for compressed schedules.

“You have to have the manpower as well to get a project of this magnitude done in nine weeks. We may have 12-15 pipefitters and four electricians on site to make this happen,” he said.

Through relationships, a reputation that precedes us, and the agility to assess and implement complex performance solutions quickly, P1 Group is on its way to making another facility efficient and comfortable for the people that use it every day.