$11M expansion approved
LIMERICK » Years of debate, study, analysis and meetings — so many meetings — all came to an anti-climactic end Monday night when the school board voted 7-1 to accept the bids for the $11 million expansion of Spring-Ford Area High School.
The proposed project includes three additions: a 10,700-square-foot performing arts expansion, a 17,200-square-foot physical education expansion, and a 6,900-square-foot corridor expansion.
The bids were opened last week and although estimates last year had ranged from $10.5 to $12.1 million, the total came in at $10.9 million.
School Board member Mark Dehnert cast the only vote against the project and said afterward he believes it is unnecessary.
“That’s a lot of money to spend for a facility that already provides most of these things” Dehnert said. “We can get by with the weight room we already have and we didn’t even know we
needed a band room until a consultant said so.”
“We have security concerns now and we could use the money on that instead of on things that are not important educationally,” said Dehnert, although he conceded that the widening of a pinchpoint corridor is probably warranted for safety reasons.
But Dehnert was in the minority both on the board and from the public comments that preceded the vote.
Clint Fetterman told the board the marching band had just returned from Disney World with lots of awards and “no place to put them,” adding that the new expanded music facilities would have a place for them.
Former board member Joe Cerisi said it took six years to get to this point for a vote, calling it “one of the greatest steps we’ve seen this district take in a long time.”
Gail Wellington, who owns three commercial properties in the district, said the project would improve quality of life, improve the school district’s reputation and increase property values.
School Board President Tom DiBello said the vote “has been a long time coming.”
He said the low-bid contractors have all been notified, so they can start ordering steel and other supplies, and that work is scheduled to begin shortly after the last day of school, currently scheduled for June 14.
Overall, the project will taker about two years, but because most of the work is new construction, there should not be much disturbance for students. The corridor re-construction and expansion will be undertaken first so as to minimize disturbance to students. The budget for debt payments for the district is fixed at about $14.9 million, but currently payments are only $14.1 million, leaving $700,000 to cover additional borrowing costs for expansion, DiBello said.
Even though the district could borrow the entire cost of the project without exceeding its debt budget, the board decided it would be wise to use $3.4 million from capital reserve, he said, which will still leave “$10 million to $11 million in the capital reserve fund,” he said.
“After about five years, we’ll see a huge drop-off in debt, down to about $9 million, and another three years after that, we’ll drop off again so our payments will be about $3 million,” said DiBello.
DiBello said Spring-Ford had a good year financially and did not have to raise taxes last year, and used some of the excess funds to help fund the project.