New Clayton school needs new pipes

About 540 Clayton County elementary school students could have to find a new school if the temperatures dip below freezing this week.

[An earlier version of this story was changed for clarity.]

School officials are replacing piping at Mount Zion Primary School in Jonesboro after learning the pipes could not adequately heat or cool 49 classrooms. The $14 million school, which houses students in kindergarten through second grades, opened in August.

“The kids have heat,” said Joseph Jones, the district’s chief operations officer. “But if the temperature gets too low, we could have serious problems.”

The Clayton school board voted Monday night to spend $217,500 to replace the piping after contractors refused to pay for it. Jones said the district likely would have to file suit against the companies to cover the cost.

“The architect and engineer are not willing to put the money out,” Jones told the board. “The mechanical engineer to this date stands by his design. I talked to other architects and engineers and they said it was inadequately designed.”

Jones said the architect J.W. Robinson & Associates of Atlanta, the mechanical engineer, and contractor MWC Construction Co. of Carrollton installed 4-inch heating pipes instead of 6-inch pipes. The pipes are not large enough to circulate air properly through the large school, Jones said.

The district began replacing the pipes over the holiday break and hopes to have the work done by Saturday. About 75 percent of the work is complete, Jones said.

“One of the reasons we did this over the holidays was because we did not want to disrupt the educational process,” Jones said. “We’re hoping not to move the kids.”

Classes resume Tuesday. Jones said he learned of the faulty pipes Nov. 14, but delayed taking action in hopes the contractors would find a way to fix the problem.

Clayton schools have other pending contracts with the architect and mechanical engineer, but plan to no longer do business with them, Jones said.

Neither the architect nor contractor could be reached Monday night.