Halstead High School

Kansas kids get days off from school for holidays, teacher training, and when the snow gets so deep that they can’t get there safely. But boiler breakdowns?

It nearly happened at Halstead High School one bitter-cold week in February when two of the district’s boilers experienced cracked heat exchangers. Not only was cancelling school for 230 students a factor, but frozen pipes and water damage became a serious concern.

The boilers provide heat for about one half of the high school’s 135,000 square feet, says Cory Gibson, superintendent of the Halstead school district, which is located about 45 minutes northwest of Wichita. Both were not operating properly when one quite functioning entirely. The other boiler was repaired but failed again shortly afterwards. It was a Thursday.

Fortunately, Halstead board of education member Bret Talbot, also a Hussmann strategic sales team account manager, maintains awareness of events in the district’s buildings. “I heard that we had a boiler problem at the high school and told the superintendent that I may be able to help the district out by getting a hold of Brett Miller with Trane and getting his thoughts,” Talbot says.

Miller, a business development leader with Kansas Trane, was at the school the next day. Once the district determined it wanted to purchase a new boiler, he contacted Ken Ridder with Commercial Mechanical about installing a new boiler in the high school over the weekend. Time was in short supply.

“No heat during the cold winter months is always considered a serious problem,” says Ridder, project manager and estimator. “We typically move ‘no heat’ calls up on our priority list during the cold months. We received the go-ahead call at 3:15 p.m. on Friday. I was able to contact the supplier in Kansas City and release the boiler around 3:30 Friday afternoon…. We were very lucky to find a boiler within the area that matched the existing boilers the school had.”

The boiler arrived at the high school early Saturday morning, when removal work on the two failed boilers began. By Sunday evening, the new boiler was operating; classes would be held Monday.

“We were relieved,” Gibson says, “particularly when it was determined that the boiler replacement was covered by insurance.”

Talbott was pleased as well. “I thought that Brett Miller and his team did a tremendous job and acted very professionally while handling this problem.”