The Pleasant Valley School Board approved a proposed final budget with a possible 2.5% tax increase at the meeting Thursday night. The final budget could be voted on as early as May.

The proposed final budget calls for a tax levy of 24.9816 mills in property tax, which represents a 0.6 mill increase over last year’s budget. It would amount to a total of $104.9 million in tax revenue.

Superintendent James Konrad said the tax increase is the school district’s effort to save money in order to help cover upcoming costs related to work that needs done on the districts’ buildings, starting with the high school.

“One of the things that we’re really trying to focus on as we’re looking to the future of Pleasant Valley is the Capital Improvement projects that’s going to be pretty tremendous at the high school,” Konrad said.

D’Huy Engineering Inc. in Bethlehem was hired by the school district to evaluate the areas in the school buildings that need fixed, as well as offer improvement suggestions.

At the school district’s planning meeting on April 11, the engineering firm said the high school needs $38.5 million in improvements in the main part, plus $24.8 million in the wings built in 1995 to 2004, and $17 million in the JC Mills wing.

Their report also includes work to the following:

• $6.9 million at Chestnuthill Elementary School

• $25 million at PVES

• $6.5 million at Polk Elementary School

• $32.6 million at PVIS

• $23.9 million at PVMS

• $2.5 million on the athletic fields

• $1.5 million district wide.

The grand total is more than $179 million.

Kimberly LaBrake, a project manager engineer with D’Huy Engineering, gave a long list of problem areas specifically at the high school. Among the problems are old leaky seals on windows, doors rusting out on the bottom, cracked paving that is failing apart in the parking lots, stadium lights that do not work and can’t be accessed because of the height, but the largest problem is the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems. They all need to be updated, she said.

“The biggest issues that we noted in our Capital Improvement in 2020 and the update in 2022 was your MEP systems are basically as old as most of the buildings,” LaBrake said. “They haven’t been upgraded. We still have coal boilers in the buildings. The chiller systems fail periodically. The systems are not efficient, so there are a lot of things that are going on, but that’s the biggest chunk of the renovation of the high school.”

LaBrake also said the old gymnasium is not air-conditioned and there is not good ventilation. There are multiple electrical systems and multiple problems.

“There is not a large enough generator to support the safety features if there was a major issue in the building,” she said.

There are also multiple fire detectors that are not connected to each other, because the building was built stages over several decades.

As far as plumbing, it is the original, which means that some flanges are busted but replacements are no longer being made. The plumbing equipment is outdated and shut off valves are not installed where they would be in today’s standards.

“There are a lot of issues we need to go through to put this building together on one single system not only mechanically, but also electrically and in plumbing,” she said.

LaBrake said D’Huy also has some ideas for improvements. One of these is to create a centralized entrance for students getting off and on buses, as well as consolidating classrooms, creating a main corridor in the building, and adding a large area for STEM classes and labs.

School board director Norm Burger said at the school board meeting on Thursday that a tour of the high school will be held at 6 p.m. May 8 to show the public the areas that are in need of renovation. People are asked to meet in the high school auditorium.

Konrad said he also hopes to use money from the tax increase on staffing.

“The other thing that we’re trying to do is put additional staffing resources in place in particular in support staff through increasing paraprofessionals and increasing our security within each of the buildings. This is my commitment to the district and this is my commitment to the students and staff that work together every day to achieve academic success,” Konrad said.