In the basement of Robert Mitchell Elementary School sit two huge boilers — difficult to access and in an area covered with asbestos. The boilers have aged and need repairs beyond what school maintenance workers can do.

The district’s capital projects staff bumped up Mitchell on its list of priorities recently when an inspection revealed both boilers were down and new Washoe County School District superintendent Heath Morrison declared them an emergency — a rarity for capital projects needs.

“If an emergency is declared, you don’t have to apply the letter of the law (to the purchasing process in the Nevada Revised Statutes),” said Mark Stanton, assistant superintendent of capital projects and facilities management.

At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Stanton reported the district was able to find cost savings in its search for an emergency replacement, a positive tidbit of news for WCSD’s efforts to watch its spending.

“We didn’t have time to do a formal bid as required by NRS 338,” Stanton said. “Our bid came in at $216,000. The engineer estimated it at $225,000. … We feel very confident we got the best prices for this work and we were able to expedite it.”

Trustee Scott Kelley inquired about the condition of boilers at other schools. Stanton reported that a handful of other schools have boilers nearly in the condition of Mitchell's, but are not such that they also need emergency replacement.

“We did identify four schools,” Stanton said. “We have at Sparks High School … one newer boiler of the two there so we would never have total failure.”

The same applies to Lenz and Anderson elementary schools.