The East Baton Rouge Parish school system is poised to more than double what it spends maintaining, and in some cases replacing, its heating and air-conditioning systems.
The hope is that the added money will help the school system — the second-largest traditional school district in Louisiana — get ahead on replacing old chillers and boilers and the like. But that depends on how quickly those systems, in many cases very old, fail and need to be replaced.
The School Board gave unanimous preliminary approval Thursday to adding $29.6 million over the next four years to its budget for HVAC — short for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. That would increase that budget for such work from about $16 million to about $46 million…