High school to open on time

Parents of students attending Pottsgrove High School can breathe easier — so far anyway.

According to the overseer of the three-year, $30 million renovation project, the final phase should be completed on time and school should open as schedule on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

James Hanna works with D’Huy Engineering, the firm the school board hired to oversee the three-phase renovation project.

He told the school board Tuesday night that the construction crews are scheduled to be finished with their work on Aug. 19.

He anticipates getting a certificate of occupancy from the Lower Pottsgrove Township Building Inspector on Sept. 1.

“Punch list items” — small fixes and finishes — will be addressed on nights and weekends, Hanna said.

The good news is in sharp contrast to the approach to the opening of school last year.

Construction delays pushed the opening of school back by six days last year.

Hanna said not everything will be finished.

Due to delivery issues, the photo-voltaic solar cell system will not be installed on the roof until later in the year, he said.

That too will delay the audit to determine if the school building has managed to hit its goal of being LEED Gold certified as energy efficient.

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

The designation is important because it comes with a $2 million reimbursement.

In order to get the reimbursement, the district spent an additional $375,500 on work to make the building more efficient, and to pay for additional design and monitoring services.

In addition to the solar cells, the LEED certification also monitored the reuse of materials and how construction waste was handled.

The project has met some unexpected costs — including the discovery of asbestos that had to be removed from the cafeteria area — which led to last year’s delay.

Tuesday night, school board members Al Leach and Robert Lindgren questions some of the change orders which occurred over the summer.

“I know we’ve gone through a bazillion change orders,” said Leach. “But I’m wondering why there wasn’t more push back on some of these,” he said.

“I can’t help but think the contractor put in a low bid knowing they would charge us $300,000 more in change orders, it just drives me nuts,” Leach said.

School Board President Rick Rabinowitz said the issues seem to involve the design more than the contractors and noted that the district still has not paid the full architect’s bill.

Solicitor Marc Davis said perhaps the matter would better be discussed in a meeting with the architects.

“Let’s just get this project finished and get the kids into the classrooms and then we can address it,” said Rabinowitz.