Leechburg Area School Board set to vote on major improvements to HVAC, roofs

A project targeting fluctuating temperature woes inside Leechburg Area Junior- Senior High School will be coming up for board approval Wednesday.

The the capital improvement project is estimated to cost nearly $1.8 million.

The project includes replacing the junior-senior high school’s boiler, new heating, ventilation and air conditioning controls and replacing the roofs on the junior-senior high and the David Leech Elementary School, Superintendent Tiffany Nix said.

“The figure I have right now is $1.76 million,” Nix told the board earlier this month.

However, she said, the project cost will not affect the district’s budget. That’s because the majority of the cost will be paid for with a grant of a little over $1 million from the American Rescue Plan, which is the federal response to the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.

Nix said the remanider will come from the district’s fund balance.

“That money has nothing to do with our budget, because it is all in the fund balance,” she said.

The fund balance currently amounts to $4 million, she said. The district budget is $6 million.

“We have a lot of money in our fund balance, which is great for a district our size,” Nix said.

She added, “Although I don’t like pulling money out of the fund balance, the money is there, and we’ll need it for these projects down the road.”

Board President Neill Brady said addressing the HVAC concerns are long overdue. Brady said the boiler now heating the junior-senior high building was installed in 1965.

Nix agreed, saying temperatures inside the building often tend to vary wildly.

“One office could be 85 degrees and two classrooms down the hall could be 60 degrees,” she said.