Last night at the Tyrone Area School District Board of Directors observed a presentation from the administration and Hayes Large and Associates about the need for an expansion of the middle school.
“The building will increase the square footage by 25 percent,” said Dr. William Miller. “The addition to the middle school will house the fifth grade and also have a cafeteria, gymnasium, large group instruction room and computer labs. The class room space in the elementary school would be for K-4 students as part of one of Governor Rendell’s education initiatives to provide early childhood education.”
The cost of the expansion will run between $8,364,901 and $9,808,016 and has a projected date of competition of mid-January 2006.
“We are very fortunate to be in the financial position we are in,” said Miller. “Back in the 1970s, when the high school, Adams School, Logan School and Lincoln School were paid off, the district operated debt free for nearly 30 years until the elementary school project and high school renovation. We will be able to make this a cash project and not have to borrow any money to construct this expansion.”
Currently the Tyrone School District has just over $10 million in the capital reserve fund.
The expansion will hold 11 classrooms a multi-purpose room/gymnasium, cafeteria, kitchen, two locker rooms, an art room and science lab room at a total expansion of 56,787 generated square feet.
“We have been in need for this since we renovated the high school and started the middle school program,” said Miller. “This will give us a complete middle school program with grades 5-8 included which provides a better educational opportunity for the students.”
The all-purpose room/gymnasium will hold a regulation size high school basketball court and seat 800 people.
The last building construction project cost the district $23.5 million to construct the elementary school and renovate the high school.
Because of the size of the expansion, there will need to be an Act 34 hearing that is tentatively scheduled for January 2004 and construction is expected to start in September 2004. Actual construction of the expansion is expected to take 16 months. That follows just over a year in planning, and design work.
No action was taken by the board.
