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COLUMBIANA – The Shelby County Board of Education took action on several items of business at its Jan. 21 meeting, including construction and maintenance projects at two schools.

The board approved a contract change order for the new surgical learning lab at Chelsea High School, a project that cost less than school system officials had planned for originally.

“We have come in under budget on this particular project,” Assistant Superintendent of Operations David Calhoun said, noting the savings totaled about $16,000, bringing the original contract sum of $177,496 down to $161,326.

In her instruction report, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Lynn Carroll provided background information on the surgical learning lab and the accompanying career tech elective at CHHS.

“It opens up avenues with regard to medical in lots of fields,” Carroll said, and added certified nurse Andrea Maddox teaches the class. “Her passion is amazing.”

Carroll said the results of a survey evaluating students’ interest in different programs guided the Career and Technical Education department’s decision to install the surgical lab at CHHS to allow students in the Health Sciences program to learn about working in an operating room.

The lab features a day-of-surgery admissions station, sterile processing department, pre-op holding area, operating room and a recovery room bay complete with patient care simulators, a surgical scrub sink, operating room lights from Shelby Baptist Medical Center, a surgical table and electric hospital beds.

“They just started in the room this semester,” Carroll said. “It’s an amazing set of courses that students have an opportunity to take. Thank you for your support to do innovative things such as this program at Chelsea High School. The students are very excited.”

The board also voted to reject an initial emergency boiler replacement proposal for Inverness Elementary School before voting to approve a more recent proposal.

Calhoun said the first time his department sought quotes for a permanent replacement in December, they received only one response and wanted to try again for more quotes.

The second time resulted in responses from four vendors, but procedurally, the board needed to vote to reject the first proposal in order to be able to accept one of the newer proposals, according to Calhoun.

The board approved a $103,500 bid from Stateline Mechanical, the lowest bidder.