Jan 22, 2016 By Cara Host 3 min read

A routine inspection at Bethel Park’s Benjamin Franklin Elementary School revealed a damaged floor in one of the kindergarten classrooms, so the cost to renovate the building will be a bit higher and the timeline a bit tighter.

The school district plans to revamp the building this summer, in a project similar to the work performed at George Washington Elementary School last summer. Ben Franklin was inspected as part of that project, and workers found the problems with the kindergarten classroom floor. The floor will need to be replaced and in the meantime, students were moved to an empty classroom elsewhere in the building.

“It’s going to be a challenge to get all the work done when we need to get it done,” architect Kevin Hayes of Hayes Design Group said at the school board committee meeting Jan. 19.

Nevertheless, Hayes said he was confident most of the work would be completed before the start of next school year and the district would not have to delay the first day of school. School officials want to limit any disruption to the school day, so they want most of the work to take place during the summer months.

Contractors were able to complete most of the work on the Washington School project last summer, but the scope of the Ben Franklin project is larger, even without repairs to the damaged classroom floor. So, completing it within the time frame was going to be a bit trickier.

Hayes said contractors could get a head start by doing some work after school, starting in May. He also asked the board to authorize the purchase of equipment at a special meeting March 1, so that contractors won’t have to wait for the equipment to arrive when they are ready to install it.

The school board should be ready to award contracts for the construction phase at the regular meeting March 22.

The project has been estimated at $3.9 million, but the actual cost might be a bit more, since it will now have to include the replacement of the classroom floor. The district also plans to upgrade the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, replace the lighting system with energy efficient fixtures, install sump pumps, replace the gymnasium floor and create a secure vestibule in the main entrance near the school office.

Workers will also complete a smaller project at Neil Armstrong Middle School, to replace the main water line and the electrical wiring leading to the light poles.

In another matter, the board heard from parent John Watterstram, who asked the board to restore transportation from the elementary schools to area child care centers. The district only provides busing to centers that are along busing routes and it made that change as part of a cost saving move. Watterstram contended that the policy might end up costing the district money, since it may prompt some parents to enroll in charter schools and the district would end up paying for the tuition.