The Highland school board dealt with two major projects at its meeting Monday evening.

The board tabled approval of a contract with Design Engineers for work on the high school air conditioning and other renovations approved by voters in September.

The board plans to review that contract as well as a contract with MMS Consultants to do work on the elementary school playground that was also part of the bond approved by voters.

Both contracts will be discussed at a special meeting set for Nov. 19.

The board approved advertising the sale of $3.7 million in bonds approved by voters in the September special election.

The second project is building a new system for handling wastewater from the high school and middle school.

Matt Wildman from HR Green said that the state Department of Natural Resources has said it would extend the deadline for the school district to submit a plan for the project.

The board last month asked the engineering firm to reconsider a leach field, which works similar to a septic system for the wastewater to be released into a field that the district owns.

“The drain field is the most uncertain on cost,” Wildman said.

The board approved the engineering field to test the soil to determine the best place to create a leach field and the cost for doing so.

The leach field has cost advantages over other solutions that require weekly monitoring by a certified specialist.

Wildman will return to the board’s December meeting with cost estimates for the project.

The initial price tag for the project was estimated at $500,000 or more.

The work is required for the district to meet DNR standards for wastewater. The project was spelled out for the board at a meeting earlier this year.

Chad McCleary of Ion Environmental Solutions said the school exceeded the state Department of Natural Resources levels set for ammonia in the wastewater for six months of 2018.

“We were unable to meet the permit limits multiple times throughout the year,” McCleary said. “The main issue here is the ammonia limits, and we are not meeting those.”

The school also exceeds the limits for E. coli in the wastewater.

The school has until July 2022 to get in compliance. That will require construction of a system to disinfect the school’s wastewater.

“We need to plan now even though July 2022 seems a long way away,” Superintendent Ken Crawford said.

McCleary said the DNR raised the standards for clean water when the school district renewed its wastewater discharge permit in 2017.

“They have really choked down on ammonia limits,” he said, adding that many government agencies are dealing with similar issues including Columbus Junction and Keota.

Unlike schools within city limits such as Mid-Prairie and Lone Tree that are connected to city sewage systems, Highland must treat its own waste water at the middle and high schools located on Vine Avenue between Riverside and Ainsworth.

“Any kind of disinfection process would bring those levels down,” McCleary said.

“It’s kind of the cost of doing business out in the country,” Crawford said.