Upgrades planned for intermediate high

The North Allegheny School District plans to renovate the 62-year-old intermediate high school, beginning in the summer of 2017. But how much of the school will be renovated has not yet been determined.

“We believe that our current physical structure was designed for a time when you and I went to school and was designed in the 1950s when none of us went to school,” NAI principal Brendan Hyland said. “Are we preparing students for our past or for their future?”

Mr. Hyland and architects presented their vision for the school to the school board July 20. That vision includes not only fixing the age-related problems but renovating the auditorium and constructing a digital media center in what is now an unused courtyard.

The digital media center would be accompanied by a “maker space” in the current library. Both would give students “the tools, freedom and opportunity to innovate, build … and share with the rest of the world what they created,” Mr. Hyland said. “We see learning going from more of a teacher-centered approach to an active learning approach.”

The district’s most recent bond issue included $5.3 million in repairs and maintenance work at NAI. That work includes renovating biology classrooms that have not been touched since the building was constructed in 1954 and replacing the heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems; the auditorium sound and light controls; and some kitchen equipment, said Robert Gaertner, director of facilities.

The other plans, including the digital media center and replacing the carpeting and seats in the auditorium, were not funded by the bond issue, and board members expressed concerns about the $3.1 million cost of those projects.

Some board members discussed how the school was in disrepair.

“NAI is a unique building in our school system. It is the building where all our students come together for the first time,” board member Kevin Mahler said. He said he would like to see all the projects done but that funding them would be a challenge with the cost of pensions and the Focus 2020 technology initiative launched last year.

Board member Chris Disque said a bond issue to do all of the work would add $120,000 a year to the district’s debt service. He suggested doing the project over two years.

Other board members appeared to favor doing the building improvements and the auditorium upgrade but holding off on the digital media center and maker space until the district gets enough donations to cover them.

“Financially, are we in the situation to move forward at this time, at this pace? We still are struggling to have our revenues catch up to our expenses,” board President Tara Fisher said.

She asked the architects to come back with a less expensive option, “not the Cadillac, but the Kia that can get the job done.”

In other business, the board hired James Dzurica as business manager at an annual salary of $85,000.

Also, superintendent Robert Scherrer awarded a high school diploma to James Ferdinand McCartney, a Vietnam War veteran whose service interrupted his high school years.

Mr. McCartney, who served in the Navy and Navy Reserves from 1961 to 1967, petitioned the district to receive his diploma under Operation Recognition, which allows honorably discharged veterans who served during a war when they should have been in high school to apply for their diploma.

Mr. Scherrer also gave Mr. McCartney a graduation tassel “that you can hang on your rearview mirror like the other graduates.”