No more than a few weeks after celebrating the successful conclusion of the Nitschmann school replacement project, the BASD administration and Chief Facilities and Operations Officer Mark Stein, are continuing to press forward district wide. At the Oct. 8 school board facilities committee meeting, the future of many of the district’s aging buildings was brought into discussion.

Summer projects starting with 2019 are already selected reaching out to 2022. These include replacing UV’s and adding dehumidification to Spring Garden ES, Farmersville ES and Freemansburg ES; heat pump replacement at Asa Packer, replacing the roof on the Liberty Commons building, replacing boilers in Clearview ES, amongst others. Some of the needed repairs suggested for 2019 have been on the Capital Plan, the district-wide “to-do” list since 1990, with the majority being on the list since the mid-2000’s. The large number of buildings and maintenance requirements falls in stark contrast to the limited availability of funds and summertime access required for major construction, to avoid impact on students. To perform all the renovations in one year, the district would need to accumulate an impossible 46.5 million dollars, and an additional 94.5 million dollars would be required to address major renovations or reconstruction at Fountain Hill ES, as well as HVAC upgrades at East Hills and Freedom.

It is Stein’s recommendation that the board continue to approve at least $2 million of repairs annually, to attempt to stay ahead of the needs of the aging structures. This is in-line with the 2018 Capital projects, which included roof repairs at the Education Center, major repairs to the Bethlehem stadium stands and handrails, and numerous repairs to Freedom HS and East Hill MS. The discussion over these items will continue to weigh on the board for the next few months, as they attempt to balance student safety and welfare in aging buildings against their duty to be diligent in the spending of tax-payer money.