As Hempfield Area moves forward with a nearly $281,000 roof repair at Fort Allen Elementary, the district also plans to address projected million dollar roof projects at two of its other schools next summer.

The school board voted Monday to hire Garland Company Inc. to replace the roof covering Fort Allen’s gym and music classrooms. A few leaks have been identified in this area, said Superintendent Mark Holtzman.

“It’s not like raining inside. There aren’t buckets in the hallway,” Holtzman said, “but there are some areas that have had some leaks — especially on crappy days like we’ve just dealt with.”

The original cost for the project was more than $450,000, but Garland agreed to subtract the cost of a faulty coating the company previously placed on the roof.

“They did a coating on that roof before I got here, and there’s some areas that didn’t take very well,” said Holtzman, who started his post in July.

Crews will start replacing the roof in the coming weeks, Holtzman said.

Full roof replacements at West Hempfield Middle and Stanwood Elementary will be pushed to the summer, he said.

Though the roofs are not experiencing significant leakage, Holtzman said they need to be replaced now that their warranties have expired.

“West Hempfield Middle is a little more involved,” he said. “It has some bricks that need repointed and some different things on the edges of the roof that need fixed up.”

The Stanwood project also will involve an HVAC system replacement, he said. The school board voted Monday to accept a $1 million state grant to assist with the cost.

Holtzman would like to get at least one of these projects completed this summer. Project costs are still up in the air, but he estimates the replacements will amount to several million dollars combined.

“Here at Hempfield, we’ve been kicking the can a little bit,” he said. “We have the funds available to do it and we need to do it. Those schools are really, really nice inside. I don’t want them to be leaking roofs and messes.”

Pool to be tested

The board also hired consultant American Engineering Testing to assess the high school pool ahead of the school-wide renovation project.

The consultant will assess the pool’s overall functionality and test for stability in the bottom of the pool and the ground under it, Holtzman said. Their services will cost the district $12,500.

Construction for the high school renovation project has been on hold since August of 2023, when bids for some of the work revealed the project’s cost had ballooned to almost $150 million — nearly $20 million more than expected. The interior of the high school was proposed to be gutted and renovated over the course of the next three years, leaving most of the exterior intact with some additions.

Core Architects resigned from the project in February, after the district paid more than $2.4 million to the firm for its work.

The district borrowed $100 million for the renovation project. About $5 million was used for roof replacements and other urgent repairs at the high school, and the remaining funds were invested.

The interest on the investment has generated about $8 million for the district, Holtzman told TribLive in October.

The district later hired architect Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates in April to take over the project — working alongside construction manager SitelogIQ and owner’s rep McKinley Architecture and Engineering.

Holtzman previously estimated the district will pay Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates around $4 million. The architect laid out visions for the project during a board meeting in October, touching on improvement priorities and potential schematic designs.

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