Pleasant Valley’s high school renovation project went up $10.4 million in eight months.

During their working session on Jan. 11, Arif Fazil, president of D’Huy Engineering Inc. in Bethlehem, told the school board members the cost is now about $99 million as of November. It was $88.6 million in March 2023.

Fazil said that price could come down about $5 million and explained the reasons for the increases. They include:

• $3 million - due to an interest rate of 3.42%;

• $5 million - adjusted cost of the renovation for educational programs;

• $2.4 million - 5,900 square feet of new construction.

• $2.4 million - light renovation of 14,000 square feet in the J.C. Mills wing for use as staging during construction. The J.C. Mills wing is still being considered for demolition.

Fazil said there will be a decrease of $2.5 million to adjust soft costs for design and engineering. This was already factored in to bring the cost to the $99 million level.

If the proposed athletic plaza, which are new team rooms attached to the gymnasium, are not built, then it could bring the price down another $4 million. That would bring the overall cost down to $95 million.

Fazil also said his company plans to apply for a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant of $4 million.

“If we get it or not, who knows,” he said. “We’re hoping we know by this summer.”

Contingency costs

Fazil thinks they can shave off $1 million through value engineering, which means they would focus on the necessary parts, but recommends that $5 million be set held for design and construction contingency to cover any unexpected costs.

Michael Simonetta, the business manager for the Pleasant Valley School District, said, “We are on target to be able to fund this with the funding plan. The money we’ve been putting into the budgets over the last couple years, and the plan moving forward, if we stay the course, we are going to be in good standing to finance this project as planned. The goal always was to be fully funded within five years, so at this stage in the game, by the time this is completed we’re not going to have to add additional money to the budget for the remaining 15 to 18 years of that bond payment.”

In order to bring the newest school board members up to speed on the project, Kim LaBrake, a project manager with D’Huy, went over the work that has been done to date.

“The project we are undertaking, just about half the money being spent is for mechanical, electrical and plumbing. That is the worst part of this building,” LaBrake said. “Infrastructure is 40-50 years old and that needs to be taken care of, so to do that we have to take ceilings down and redo the mechanical and boiler rooms.”

The high school was built in three phases: the main section in 1959 with renovations through 1984, J.C. Mills wing in 1974, and from 1995 to 2004, the new auditorium and the connection between it and J.C. Mills, as well as the new gymnasium.

Renovations

The current renovation project involves expanding the cafeteria and the kitchen, creating a new interior corridor spine they refer to as “PV Way” that will run straight from the front to the back of the building, increasing the space in the locker room by 3,500 square feet, increasing the space in the weight room by 3,000 square feet, and creating a classroom section for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, math), a new front entrance and an addition for administration.

The old auditorium would demolished, and the administration offices would be relocated near the new auditorium in a new addition.

“Right now, there are a lot of different entrances into the building,” LaBrake said. “People, when they come to the building, it’s a little hard to navigate where you go in first.”

He said the classrooms are being designed to accommodate 1,325 students. Enrollment now is 1,200.

“We want to make sure if there is a bump in enrollment that we can accommodate that in the building itself,” she said.

Core spaces, such as the cafeteria, will be designed to accommodate 1,425 students.

Shannon Abraham, project architect for KCBA Architects, went over the plans since her company was retained by the school district last year.

Abraham said removing the old auditorium would provide a good line of sight from the front parking lot to a new section for administration offices.

“You’ll have a new facade pretty much this entire wing across the front of the building,” she said.

The glass wall and ceiling in the cafeteria also would be removed, because the glass makes it too hot in warm weather and too cold in the winter.

The cafeteria would be reconfigured to accommodate 400 students per lunch period.

As for the classrooms, they would be grouped by subjects. Currently, at least 20 empty classrooms and subjects are spread out over the campus.

Fazil, president of D’Huy Engineering, said they are trying to create something that might be how it would be designed if it was totally new construction, without the cost of totally new construction.

“That was the focus. It can’t be the blank canvas, because the numbers would be three times as high as what we’re looking at, but how do we surgically make sure we give the best bang for your buck,” he said. “Focus very heavily on just really changing only the areas we need to.”

Fazil said the next step in the project is to meet with Chestnuthill Township. He thinks the project will go out to bid in January of 2025 with awards in March 2025. Construction will probably take place over the summers of 2025, 2026 and 2027. The project should be completed by the end of 2027.