The Pleasant Valley School Board authorized D’Huy Engineering in Bethlehem to begin working on plans for two projects - playgrounds and HVAC systems.

Michael Simonetta, the business manager, said the cost of both projects will be covered through money from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

The playground plan involves renovating and upgrading with all new equipment at Pleasant Valley Elementary School and Pleasant Valley Intermediate School.

“Although the playgrounds are inspected for safety annually, the playgrounds have not been updated in quite some time,” Simonetta said. “The equipment is limited and this project will provide more state of the art sections for our kids to enjoy.”

The district has set aside $500,000 of ESSER money for the playground project, Simonetta said. The actual total cost won’t be known until after the design is completed and the proposals are received, he said.

As far as the equipment that is being replaced, the district plans to move or reuse any pieces of the current playground equipment that would work with the new design, Simonetta said.

Selling some of the old equipment also could be considered.

“There are specific guidelines for selling district equipment holding any value, so if we go that route it will have to be approved by the board,” he said.

The second project involves the replacement of chillers, water heaters, boilers and specific mechanical units in the heating and air conditioning systems at the elementary and middle schools.

Simonetta said the timeline for the project is to begin the design phase now and then put it out to bid sometime in the spring.

“We are not tied to a specific manufacturer but in discussion with the engineer, we will specify a particular model and could allow for equivalents through the bid process,” he said.

The school district hopes to have the work completed no later than the summer of 2024.

The projects are part of a larger renovation plan for all of the school buildings in the district.

At the district planning meeting in November, Arif Fazil, president of D’Huy Engineering Inc., presented to the school board his company’s findings and recommendations for capital improvement projects. He expects it will take between five to 10 years to complete the numerous projects.

In order to know which ones need to be addressed first, the company organized them with different priority levels. The HVAC systems in the school buildings were at the top of the list.

The boilers and the hot water heaters at the elementary school need to be replaced at en estimated cost of $655,000 and $365,000, respectively.

At the middle school, the boilers, hot water heaters and mechanical units need to be replaced. The estimated cost for these are $585,000, $440,000, and $265,000, respectively.

Simonetta said the district may hold off on replacing the hot water heaters at the elementary school if the bid prices are higher than they are estimating.

“We have set aside $2 million to $2.5 million from federal ESSER funds for these (HVAC-related) items,” he said. “We are bidding the first four items with the fifth as an alternate. The alternate will be decided when we know the bid costs for the first four. We plan to complete all five if the total amount comes in below the $2.5 million.”

The high school has even more HVAC work that will need to be done. There is a different HVAC and electrical system for each of its three sections.

The sections were built at different times. The first was worked on from 1959 to 1984, the second section in 1974, and the third from 1995 to 2004. Fazil recommended that the systems be combined into one that regulates the entire building.

The options for the use of ESSER funds is limited, Simonetta said.

“The district is committed to using these funds for ‘one time’ purchase items. That said, we are pulling these projects out of the overall capital plan since they would be an acceptable manner to expend this grant money,” he said.

In order to help the school district wade through and prioritize the most urgent of the projects, three school board members, Todd Kresge, Diane Serfass and Norm Burger, agreed to participate in a committee with district administration and the engineering firm.