The Weatherly Area School District Board will decide Wednesday between major repairs to its buildings or a complete swap of schools.

The board, along with EI Engineers, held a public forum in January to answer questions and present taxpayers with the serious repairs needed to the buildings in the district.

The second option presented was to completely change the high school with elementary grades while conducting the overhauls to the structures, security, electrical and ventilation work to the aging buildings.

The cost of the swap will be an estimated $10,751,560 versus only conducting the repairs at a cost of $10,061,560.

The school swap would include new security measures along with a new $8,400 fence built on the property of the high school, interior and exterior work to both buildings, plumbing and electrical upgrades for both Sixth Street located buildings. All major repairs would still be executed under the lesser cost, but grade levels would remain in their respective places.

The project was originally proposed in May of last year with a study conducted by EI over the summer. By August EI had completed the study and presented the board with a priority list of repairs needed, the current condition of the buildings and the feasibility of expediting the proposed projects.

The elementary school was built in 1960 with the last interior upgrades conducted 30 years ago. The middle school was added in 1976 with additional classrooms attached in 1991.

The largest repairs to be conducted will include the replacement of the gym bleachers with plastic telescoping nonmotorized ADA-compliant seating and refinishing the gym floor with a combined cost of $280,000. Repairs to the heating/cooling units will run $900,000 while plumbing changes, moving to low-flow fixtures, replacing the water heater and piping will cost $1,190,000 and replacing the main electrical switchboard, sub panels and wiring will cost $2,021,700.

The high school, built in 1990, will need heating work for an estimated $592,500 and a generator replacement at $55,000,

In addition to the repair price ticket, should the board vote to swap schools, an extra $530,000 would be added for the alterations to classrooms and spaces.

The board detailed realignment advantages for the elementary/high school swap, saying the smaller community for the elementary would be beneficial for learning, the building would be more secure and efficient for younger children while the larger classroom sizes and media center would be better accessed by high school students after class hours.

The district would have to borrow the funds while raising school taxes a total of 3.31 mills over the next three to four year period. One mill equals approximately $138,000.

The increased taxes over that time frame will be added to the existing debt service payment that already exists from two loans taken out over the past 10 years by the district.

The first was $1.8 million to pay a fair share portion of the CCTI renovation and $1.6 million borrowed in 2012 to pay for new roofing. The balance left on those loans is $337,900, which would be folded into the new loan for the upcoming project.

“We did our due diligence and looked at every line item and tried to do our best for Weatherly and taxpayers,” said board President Girard Fewins.

The project would not begin until the 2019-20 school year.

The meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Middle School on Sixth Street, is open to the public.