Pittsburgh firm gives preliminary look at Quaker Valley School District facilities assessment

Security vestibule adjustments, roof repairs, paving, improved cafeteria acoustics and HVAC and electrical upgrades are among the various projects recommended in a preliminary Quaker Valley School District facilities assessment.

Administrators and other officials watched as Cassi Renninger, principal architect at DRAW Collective Architecture, presented the company’s initial look at potential efficiency initiatives on May 19.

Quaker Valley has four schools: Osborne and Edgeworth elementary schools, the middle school and the high school. The district’s total enrollment is about 1,800 students.

Evaluation efforts began in early February. Renninger said information provided at the board meeting featured everything accumulated as of mid-May.

Data collection included building walk-throughs as well as interviews with principals and other staffers.

The presentation did not include any cost projections for infrastructure upgrades.

Potential upgrades

Potential safety changes centered around the main elementary school entrances.

They included separating an entry area from the rest of the vestibules, adding counters or mail slots inside an area of the vestibules, improving windows at clerical areas and adding windows between the clerical area and lobby to increase visibility.

Student entry doors may also need to be replaced.

Parking lot and playground repaving was suggested for both elementary schools.

Middle school changes included adding restrooms by the cafeteria, removing a folding wall in a room on the upper floor to increase space and installing new safety showers in the science area to address flooding concerns.

“Last year, we had significant flooding in the middle school caused by a safety shower malfunction. This caused damage to several rooms, including the main office and counseling suite,” said district director of communications Michelle Dietz. “The changes recommended in the facilities study by DRAW include a more modern enclosed safety shower setup, which would alleviate the threat of future flooding.”

New security fencing, retaining wall repairs and track resurfacing at the middle school were also suggested.

It has been about 10 years since a thorough inspection of all amenities by an architectural firm was done.

The last facilities study was done by New Castle-based Eckles Architecture, which merged with DRAW in 2022.

The elementary schools were renovated in 2006 and 2007; the middle school was renovated in 2011.

Renninger said her firm was involved in those renovation projects.

“It is very comforting to come back and see the buildings being so well-cared for and being used the way we designed them,” she said. “The buildings are in pretty good shape. There are some things that we’re finding along the way that are normal wear and tear on a building, but the district’s cared for them.

“It makes the analysis a lot easier to be able to come in and see things. These (renovations) were very important and transformative projects at the time that they were done.”

DRAW’s May preliminary report is posted on the district website under 2024-25 presentations.

Charlie Gauthier, district director of facilities and administrative services, said he was not surprised at the presentation suggestions and looks forward to more extensive reporting.

“The board will get more detail from their engineers of mechanical-type stuff and what those improvements can be,” he said. “For tonight, it was just visual observations and utilization of the buildings and ways that they can potentially be improved.”

Work to be done

A draft report of Edgeworth, Osborne and middle school assessments is expected to be submitted in early fall, followed by a final report sometime in October.

MGT Consultants is also in the process of doing a demographics study as part of the facilities analysis.

That study is expected to include community growth and enrollment projections as well as other statistics.

The high school study is not expected to be complete until next year.

That study will feature recommendations for the building’s use after students move out.

Its students are expected to relocate to the new high school off Camp Meeting Road in Leet by the 2027-28 school year.

The proposed 167,000-square-foot school is planned on district property that straddles Leet Township, Edgeworth and Leetsdale, but the school will be in the township.

Options in the May 19 presentation included moving district offices from Leetsdale Industrial Park to the high school, as well as adding meeting rooms and a preschool.

Expanded athletic options, including a fitness center, indoor turf, an auxiliary gym and pickleball courts, were listed as “conversation starters” in the presentation.

The board voted in January to approve the $80,750 comprehensive facilities assessment.

Superintendent Tammy Andreyko said reports of the district looking to sell the current high school were exaggerated.

“We do know that is valuable property for us,” she said. “We will continue to use that property in some capacity. … We’ve always had concerns about that site related to parking, related to the hill, related to water, etc. We’ll be very conscious as we make decisions as we move forward.”

The stadium will be maintained.