This week’s meetings » April 30 North Penn Support Services committee
Architect RFP responses
North Penn School District staff are narrowing down the list of firms that have responded to a request for proposals for the district’s architectural services. “We interviewed seven architectural firms on April 11, three finalists were interviewed by the board on April 25, and we have narrowed that down to two architect finalists,” said Director of Facilities and Operations Scott Kennedy. In December 2017, newly seated members of the school board formally directed staff to seek proposals and quotes from firms to handle the district’s legal and architectural services, building off of campaign vows to see if costs could be reduced and/or if the services could be upgraded. That process has already been completed for the solicitor position: in early March the board appointed Kyle Somers of New Britainbased law firm Sweet Stevens to act as solicitor. Kennedy gave an update on the architect search during the April 30 Support Services committee meeting: site visits are being scheduled for board members to see projects done by the top two firms, and a formal recommendation and action could be ready for the school board’s May 17 meeting, according to Kennedy.
High School PA upgrade in works
Kennedy also gave an update on planned upgrades to the public address system at North Penn High School. In recent months the school board and its various committees have discussed a series of security upgrades to improve communication during emergencies, and have said modernizing the high school’s public address system is a top priority. Kennedy said last week that an electrical engineering firm has been hired to design a new system, meetings with high school staff to evaluate system needs in person were scheduled for the week of May 1, with the goal of finalizing a bid package as soon as possible. “We won’t have it completed this summer, so one of our thoughts is to maybe install a new system in the fall, and then once that’s finished, turn the old one off,” Kennedy said.
New electricity contract for elementary school
Kennedy also updated the support services committee about a board action that will be needed to synchronize one district elementary school’s electricity contract with the others. According to Kennedy, the district purchases electricity from supplier Direct Energy, and that electricity is then distributed over PECO or PPL lines to each district building — except, it turns out, for Hatfield Elementary. “We discovered that Hatfield is still buying power from PPL, in addition to having PPL ship it here, so we’re looking at a 13-month contract to purchase from Direct Energy,” Kennedy said. Switching Hatfield over to a short term contract would line up that school with the rest of the district, as their overall contract comes up for renewal next year. The 13-month contract for Hatfield Elementary to buy from Direct Energy would be less than the district currently pays for that school’s electricity from PPL, Kennedy said, “and will be much less expensive next June” when Hatfield is folded into the contract for the rest of the district. “Next June, all of our buildings are on a new Direct Energy contract for five years, so this will keep Hatfield (supplied) until next year, when the Direct Energy contract kicks in,” Kennedy said.
Projects presented
Kennedy and district Coordinator of Maintenance and Facilities Bob Lanetti gave the committee an update on projects done in-house using district maintenance staff over the past year. Repairs to the press box at North Penn High School, new electric and data wiring at Penndale and Pennfield middle schools, repairs to beams in modular classrooms at Pennbrook Middle School, and new security cameras at four elementaries are among the recent projects, Lanetti told the committee. In partnership with home and school associations, parents purchased new basketball poles for North Wales and Gwyn Nor elementaries, which district facilities staff then installed. “Our guys did all of these projects, and they were completed with just our staff of 11,” he said. A new sensory room for students with different learning needs has been created and installed at Oak Park Elementary, Lanetti said as he showed photos of each, and new ballfield foul poles and lighting has been installed at North Penn High School, despite difficult conditions found underground below the ballfields. “We had about four inches of dirt and about 44 inches of shale, so we had a jackhammer and a piece of backhoe (excavating), and we did it in about six hours, dug and poured it the next day,” Lanetti said. “During our inspections last year, the bases of the old poles were showing a lot of rust. We had some concerns, so we replaced those,” Kennedy added. In summer 2017, gymnasium floors were stripped and recoated at several elementary schools, and a new cafe area was decorated at General Nash Elementary School. Also at Nash, Lanetti said, staff repaired the school’s marquee message sign after it blew over in a wind storm, and he showed a message for staff posted on the newly reparied sign. “Last Sunday, I drove by and saw Nash had a nice little message for us,” Lanetti said, showing a photo of the message sign that read ‘Thank you for fixing me!’ Over the past 12 months, facilities staff have handled a total of 6,176 work orders, of which 4,119 were corrective maintenance issues and 2,057 were planned maintenance, according to Lanetti. Those were handled by a total of 11 mechanics and five grounds crew employees, with 59 percent of the work orders completed within one week, just below the national average of 62 percent. “It’s nice to do a lot inhouse, from camera installations, to larger projects. We’re bringing as much inhouse as we can, and they take a lot of pride in their work,” Kennedy said.
North Penn’s full school board next meets at 7:30 p.m. on May 8 and the Support Services committee next meets at 6 p.m. on May 29, both at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock St. For more information visit www. NPenn.org.