Architects for proposed Quaker Valley High School will be paid $50,000 to study how to reduce its energy usage

Architects of a proposed Quaker Valley High School will study how to make the facility more energy efficient as attorneys representing parties for and against the project continue their legal battle in Allegheny County Court.

School directors voted 8-0 on Tuesday, Sept. 20 to approve a $50,000 contract amendment with BSHM Architects to review strategies to reduce building energy use.

Board member Jeffrey Watters was absent. Payment will be withdrawn from the district’s construction fund.

The school district wants to build an estimated 167,000-square-foot facility on about 150 acres of land off Camp Meeting Road. Project costs were estimated between $90 million and $100 million. About 650 students would eventually be enrolled.

The property straddles Leet, Edgeworth and Leetsdale. BSHM is the lead company working on the project.

School Director Gianni Floro said the study is necessary to explore the school’s sustainability.

“It’s not just looking at one particular item,” Floro said. “It’s looking at, before we put the building in, are there cost savings that we can design into the building?”

It is unclear when the study would start or be completed.

“We anticipate it should be something that’s done in pretty quick fashion,” Floro said.

He noted previous energy studies for the existing Quaker Valley schools have led to energy-saving measures such as automatic lights that shut of when no one is in a room.

The new high school construction project is still in its design phase and may stay there until litigation is resolved regarding the Leet Township Zoning Hearing Board’s denial of the district’s conditional use application for the school.

The township’s board on Feb. 9 denied the district’s application. Its main reason was the lack of an emergency access road for police fire and EMS.

District officials had said they did not object to the idea, but that it would be more suitable in a land development plan and not part of an exception application.

Quaker Valley’s 45-page appeal was filed in Allegheny County Court on April 12.

A virtual status conference took place June 16 with Common Pleas Judge Joseph James and attorneys representing the district, the zoning hearing board, and a small group of petitioners that support the board’s denial.

Oral arguments before Judge James are scheduled for Oct. 27.

There is no deadline for the judge to rule on the matter.

“I think if we’re able to get through the zoning hearing board process and get into planning that would be a wonderful thing, but you have to let the courts do their job,” Floro said. “Once the courts make their decision, we’ll be able to get back on track. That shouldn’t delay our planning process.”

District officials had hoped to have the new school built and ready for students by the 2025-26 school year.

Those plans have since been altered to have construction begin in 2025 with doors being opened in fall 2027 due to the ongoing litigation.

In other matters

• The school board meetings were moved back to Edgeworth Elementary, 200 Meadow Lane, and will continue to be hosted there until further notice.

Meetings the past few years took place at the middle school as part of pandemic protocols to allow for more social distancing, district Director of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives Karyn Dobda said.

• The board approved an overnight eighth-grade field trip to Gettysburg, Hershey and Washington, D.C.

Students will visit various historic locations May 18-19.

It’s a bump from last school year’s one-day trip to the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center as well as Hershey Park, and closer to the traditional three-day adventure for middle schoolers.

About 150-or-so students have gone each year since the 1970s.

Trips were canceled in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school year due to the covid-19 pandemic.

District spokeswoman Michelle Dietz said staffers and chaperones are excited to offer young learners additional time to learn about the nation first hand.