Quaker Valley School District inching closer to new high school construction

Quaker Valley School District is moving forward with its plans on building a new high school.

The school board voted unanimously Jan. 19 to approve payment of just north of $15,000 for Crafton-based Wooster & Associates to finish a traffic study and lot consolidation plan for the new high school’s proposed site along Camp Meeting and Little Sewickley Creek roads.

The move follows a Jan. 12 presentation given to the board by Charlie Gauthier, the district’s Director of Facilities and Administrative Services.

In that presentation, Gauthier said the district is reviewing the qualifications of 17 different architectural firms. Also, the engineering firm Garvin Boward Beitko continues to gather geotechnical information for the 150-acre site and the district is preparing an application to the Leet Township Zoning and Hearing Board.

Gauthier said the next step in the process is to issue requests for proposals and from architects and engineers. Once those come in, the district will interview them so the board can hire firms.

“Once hired, they will develop construction documents and specifications and put construction documents out for bid and conduct a bid review,” Gauthier said.

District officials have not provided an expected construction start date.

The price tag for the project has been estimated to be between $87 million to $95 million.

The new high school would replace the century-old building along Beaver Street with additional classrooms for physical education and health, a business and marketing lab, tennis courts and a recreation field, officials have said.

Taxpayers would be tapped to help pay for the project. Scott Antoline, the district’s director of finance and operations, has said taxes would be spread over several years.

The district, which serves 11 municipalities, currently levies a 19.4711 mill rate for its residents. Millage was last increased in June 2019. That means the owner of a property valued at $227,850, the median value for the district, pays $4,436 in real estate taxes to finance school operations.

The board held the line on taxes for the 2020-21 school year.

If the district went with a building that costs $87 million, tax bills would increase by about $272. The $95 million figure – which includes additional features to the new building such as a field house and orchestra room – would add about $305 a year to residents’ tax bills.

Also during the meeting, the school board unanimously approved a resolution that limits how much the district can raise property taxes for the upcoming school year.

The resolution states the board cannot and will not increase taxes more than 3%, a figure calculated by the state Department of Education.