All three high school gymnasiums in Escambia County will get new air conditioning work, a result of state capital projects funding the county school board must spend before it loses it.

The Escambia County and W.S. Neal high school gyms will get new HVAC systems, and the Flomaton High School gym will get new air conditioning units, Superintendent Billy Hines told school board members at their meeting Thursday.

“We’ve had this (money) a while, but we received notification that we had to spend the money by a certain date,” Hines said last Thursday.

The baseball field lighting at W.S. Neal High School will also be replaced with the funds.

The capital improvement funds have also helped replace the HVAC systems at ECHS, FHS and W.S. Neal Elementary School.

In other business Thursday:

• Financial officer Julie Madden told board members that the school system has a $7.6 million fund balance, down from $8.7 million the previous month. Part of the reason for the change was a large payment to the child nutrition program fund, Madden said.

“We expect the fund balance to decrease through September,” Madden said.

• The board approved a revised salary schedule.

• The board approved a contract with Melody Lee for speech language pathology services.

• The board approved 21st Century Community Learning Center grants for Escambia County Middle School, W.S. Neal Middle School and Flomaton High School.

• The board hired Belinda Fails as an LPN/aide at W.S. Neal High School; Latrice Bush as an office aide at ECMS; Clint Smith as a history teacher at ECHS; and Mary Ann Figgers as an English teacher at ECHS.