Board pursues elementary air conditioning project
Contracts approved for construction management and design engineering
Five school buildings within Boyertown Area School District do not currently have air-conditioned classrooms. The Board of School Directors, with direction from administration, is looking to change that.
The buildings include four elementary schools — Colebrookdale, Earl, Pine Forge, and Washington – and Boyertown Junior High West.
Since Junior High West is being addressed through the building project currently underway, the focus falls on the elementary schools.
On Tuesday, Oct. 11, a plan to implement air-conditioning in the remaining elementary school buildings was presented to the board by Chief Student Achievement Officer Dr. Greg Miller. The goal is for the project to be completed by the 201718 school year. The construction will take place throughout the summer of 2017.
Miller explained how high temperatures, at times, can have an adverse effect on students and staff. The total cost of the elementary air-conditioning addition is approximately $3.25 million. The district’s Capital Projects Fund will be utilized.
Following Miller’s presentation, all nine board members voted in favor to provide administration with direction in regards to air conditioning the remaining elementary schools. With the board’s support, the project proposal is moving along.
On Tuesday, Oct. 25, the board approved two contracts to pursue the Elementary Air Conditioning Project.
Board member Clay Breece questioned whether the district would need to borrow money for the project.
“The money that we are utilizing for this project is sitting in our Capitol Funds Project cur-
rently and it will have no impact on the taxpayers,” said Superintendent Richard Faidley.
With a vote of 7-1, Fidevia Construction Management and Consulting was approved as the management team at a cost of $85,600. Board member Christine Neiman voted against the proposal.
The next recommendation was to bring on McCarthy Mechanical Engineering Firm to handle the design phase at a cost of $62,800.
Faildley explained how the engineering firm will go through each of the buildings to determine what is there and what is needed for this project. “One of the benefits of using McCarthy Engineering is that they are familiar with our buildings,” he said, adding that the firm designed the Gilbertsville and New Hanover elementary buildings. “We feel comfortable going in that McCarthy will be knowledgeable about what it takes to engineer these projects.”
The board unanimously approved to hire the firm.
Both contracts are subject to review by the district solicitor. Additional scopes of work will come back to the board for discussion and approval. Bid documents for the project will be created in December/January; installation will begin in June 2017.