Uniontown school board seeks state approval
The Uniontown Area School Board will again try to have its plans for the renovation/new construction of three school buildings approved by the state. The board agreed to submit PlanCon A and B, the initial two steps of an 11-step process at its meeting Thursday night. PlanCon, an acronym for Planning and Construction Workbook, is the state Department of Education’s application process for school districts to receive monetary reimbursement on school building projects.
This is the board’s latest attempt to push forward with projects to update the high school, Ben Franklin and Lafayette schools after the state stopped the projects in April.
More recently, the state did not grant the board’s request to forgo the feasibility study requirement and begin an expedited PlanCon process, permitted if the district would use federal stimulus money toward the project.
Because of the budget impasse, the state turned down Uniontown’s and similar requests made by other districts, according to Dr. Charles Machesky, superintendent.
Machesky said the district might have to conduct another feasibility study depending on what the state determines.
In the meantime, Beddia was authorized to submit the same study given to the state during the first round of PlanCon approvals initiated last fall. The Department ruled in May that the last feasibility study submitted did not contain all the required information, but a change in the official who oversees the PlanCon process may aid the district in the approval process, according to Machesky.
At the board meeting, John Beddia, senior project manager for Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates Architects, presented changes to current project plans. The architectural firm continues to design the projects. Their progress hasn’t slowed, said Machesky.
The board gave the go-ahead for the architectural firm to design a four-pipe heating and cooling system for the gym, auditorium and cafeteria at the high school.
The four-pipe system, as opposed to a two-pipe system, will allow those key areas to be heated and cooled simultaneously, according to Beddia. The system, regarding as “higher end,” may cost an additional $200,000 to $400,000 to complete, he said.
A two-pipe system or rooftop cooling units may be used to accommodate other areas of the building, but engineers continue to work on those options, according to district officials.
A 4,300-square-foot auxiliary gym at the high school is being designed and will be presented as an alternate bid, which the board could accept or reject depending on the price to construct the facility and other factors.
The gym at Lafayette School was expanded into a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) competition-sized gym, while the addition of a mechanical room was added to Ben Franklin School design plans.
Design development should wrap up in September. The projects are scheduled to go out to bid in January, but that date could get pushed back, depending on how the PlanCon process goes, Beddia said.
“These are clean projects, brand new projects. They should be approved…” Beddia said, noting his firm will try to move forward with the projects “as fast as we can.”
Meanwhile, the board authorized investment banker John McShane to prepare to move forward with refinancing a 2003 and a 2004 bond issue. A special meeting could be called in November to take official action on the refinancing of the bond issues.
According to McShane, the district will save $250,000 this budget year through the move. The savings would be seen in the form of lower payments or the district paying $250,000 less in debt service due to the refinancing, he said.
No savings would be seen after this year since the payments will return to the previous amount, noted McShane.
He said today’s market conditions present a good opportunity to refinance the bond issues. It will cost the district $40,000 to complete the refinancing. He said the highest expense would be bond insurance, which he said has doubled due to fewer competitors.
McShane also presented the board with an option to postpone the district’s $2 million debt service payment due Oct. 1 and to repay that amount over the course of 20 years.
The board decided to not move forward with the move after determining it would cost the district more money in the long run. No savings would be associated with the move and $1 million in accumulated interest would be added to the district’s debt service total.
Machesky said McShane was asked to present the second option because he is unsure if the district can make the Oct. 1 payment without money from the state.