The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

October 17, 2012

Work-in-progress school gets a once-over from the board

By Courtney L. Saylor Herald Staff Writer

SHARON — Sharon City School District directors Monday night got a little dirty on a tour of the in-progress Case Avenue Elementary building.

The visit to the school, which will open next school year to students in the same location as the old one, preceded the regular monthly board meeting where the $20 million project was, as usual, a topic of discussion.

Members of the board unanimously approved adjustments to the school’s playground at a cost not to exceed $150,000.

Over the summer district officials discussed moving the play equipment and game area from the east to the west side of the building along East State Street. The outdoor amphitheater will remain on the east side and the swap will allow for fewer distractions during lessons held outside.

Superintendent John Sarandrea said the cost to change the location is $75,000 and they’re budgeting up to $75,000 for new playground equipment, which wasn’t included in the original construction plan.

The play area will eat up some of the planned parking spots and the district is looking into purchasing a couple of lots on Forker Boulevard across from the high school to convert into a staff lot.

Board members on Monday also tabled a proposed to put up two illuminated tiger paw logo signs at the building’s entrances at a cost of $8,892.

“That seems like a lot of money,” Sarandrea said of the signs, which are a change from the original plan to put up one non-illuminated sign at one entrance.

Sarandrea said since they’ve decided to use the Linden Street doors at the front of the building as the primary grade entrance and the Case Avenue wing entrance for grades 4, 5 and 6 they wanted to mark the access points in the same way.

“Will they look nice? Yes. Will they be there many years? Yes. But it’s a question of luxury versus necessity,” Sarandrea said.

David Esposito of Eckles Architecture said the board members still have time to decide about the signs.

Sarandrea noted that the changes to the project – a different type of roof and additional sidewalk work were already approved – are covered by the budgeted $500,000 contingency. About half of that has now been eaten up.

The district was awarded $19.5 million of that funding in Qualified School Construction Bonds through the federal stimulus program and took out another $7 million bond before they learned they’d scored the nearly interest-free ones that were part of the federal stimulus package.

Some of the bond money will also be used for improvements to the high school swimming pool and stadium.

The new elementary school is smaller than the 87-year-old former high school that was demolished in summer 2011.

 

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