Board tables air conditioning study for facilities study

Talks have been ongoing since 2016

LANSDALE >> Talks on air conditioning for the North Penn School District’s three middle schools will have to wait for a wider district facilities study to be done.

The school board has tabled a specific engineering study to evaluate engineering needs only, as they move ahead with a wider conversation on facility upgrades across the district.

“After having some discussions internally, the administrative recommendation is to defer a decision on this study until the various facility study options are further examined,” said Director of Business Administration Steve Skrocki.

Talks on air conditioning in district schools has been ongoing since late 2016, when parents

raised concerns with high temperatures at Knapp, Gwyn Nor and Oak Park elementary schools, and the board and staff began bidding out various systems.

In early 2017, the district received word that no bids had come back for the air conditioning projects, leading them to OK a smaller project for Oak Park only in April 2017, and a second

set of bids in late 2017 approved the installation of new systems at Gwyn Nor and Oak Park.

Knapp was deferred for further study throughout 2018, as the district’s architectural consultant performed an evaluation of Knapp, North Penn High School, the three middle schools, and the district offices.

Board discussions are still ongoing about whether and how to tackle those large projects and in what order, so staff have recommending tabling, for now,

a smaller proposal from architects The Schrader Group to evaluate the air conditioning needs only at just the middle schools.

“We think we’ll be in a better position once we determine what exactly is on the table, with respect to the three middle schools, instead of spending the money right now,” Skrocki said.

The roughly $33,000 proposal from Schrader to perform the air conditioning study was discussed by the board’s Support Services committee, which has now

been renamed as the “Facilities and Operations” committee, and Skrocki said that board recommended the contract also be discussed and vetted by the Finance committee before any action.

Finance committee Chairman Ed Diasio said, during that committee’s meeting on Feb. 4, that deferring on the air conditioning study made sense for now, while the larger projects are still being evaluated.

“I think that’s a good idea. Does everyone agree?”

he asked, and the rest of the finance committee members said they did.

“We’ll bring that back to this committee once we have further vetting of the facilities,” Skrocki said.

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 12, and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 6 p.m. on Feb. 25, all at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock St.