Plans for renovation and construction of Eisenhower Middle/High School are moving along with the use of other school plans as a guide.
At a meeting of the school board'rs Physical Plant and Facilities Committee on Monday night, Board President Arthur Stewart reported on the Pennsylvania School Board Association leadership conference in Hershey earlier this month that he attended along with Board Vice President Donna Zariczny and Board Member Kimberly Angove.
Stewart said he attended a presentation on Baldwin-Whitehall School, located near Pittsburgh, that went through a similar renovation and construction project that will take place at Eisenhower. He said that monthly written reports by a Change Order Committee helped to create an interactive dialogue between the board and administration at the school so that everyone was kept informed and to also help dispel rumors and prevent misinformation.
Stewart said the board may want to use a Clerk of the Works instead of a Construction Manager for the Eisenhower project, stating that they have had success in the past using that method.
"The Clerk of the Works is more of a set of eyes that watches over what's going on," said Zariczny. "In a project this size, you would hire this representative to be the eyes and ears as well as a conduit for information to run through in order to keep everybody on task."
A renovation update on Eisenhower will be provided at the committee's Nov. 22 meeting.
The committee also discussed education specifications for Pleasant Elementary School for future renovations that included costs for desks, chairs and computer equipment.
Stewart mentioned that plans for busing routes would be figured out at a later date but that bus traffic should be about the same as it was when the school was in operation, stating that there are 317 students from that region.
The district's Master Facilities Plan includes reopening Pleasant Elementary as a kindergarten and first grade center at a cost of $8.6 million.
"We don't need to vote on this tonight so that board members may look over the specifications and discuss it in November," he said.
Plans for the Beaty-Warren Middle School driveway project and the Sheffield Area Middle/High School storage building will also move forward.