Jul 11, 2010 By Carla Destefano 2 min read

Laurel Highlands School Board’s buildings and grounds committee met this week to discuss contractual legal issues regarding the architectural firm hired to handle the renovation project of the high school. The open meeting went into a 45-minute executive session while the committee discussed legal issues with the district’s solicitor Gary Frankhouser.

The district’s architect is Eckles Architecture and Engineering of New Castle.

According to Dr. Gary Brain, superintendent, the committee needed to address the issues before the board can move forward with the renovation project.

“There were no decisions or discussions about the renovation project itself,” Brain said. “We are still trying to formulate a plan.”

The board voted in favor last month of a tax increase of .53 mills, which is expected to raise $507,000 that is earmarked specifically for the renovation project fund.

According to Angelo Giachetti, board president, the board has not settled on an exact plan, but said a generous figure for renovations would be somewhere between $30 million and $40 million.

“The scope of the project hasn’t been determined yet, so it’s difficult to say what the total cost would be,” said Giachetti. “We need to look at educational figures, support personnel, extra-curricular activities and revenues like that to see what we can get.”

Giachetti said the money from the tax increase, combined with stimulus money the district received and other forms of revenue will help fund the project.

“We will go up all avenues to see where we can save and bring in revenue, wrap it all around a bond, and then go from there,” he said.

The committee will meet again during a special open meeting at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in the board room at the administration building.