Lebanon School District officially moves forward with middle school project
The Lebanon School District school board accepted construction bids during Monday night’s meeting amounting to $61,866,374 for a brand-new middle school, which will hold seventh and eighth grades and offer new sports fields.
Superintendent Arthur Abrom said that they would likely break ground on the project sometime early in the fall, however an exact date has not been set.
The district has until September of 2024 to complete construction and occupy the building as the $15 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds allocated for the project must be spent by then, Abrom said.
These funds were a key part of federal COVID-19 economic response stimulus.
The total cost for just the school it self came in at $57,116,160 and will be paid by the district in cash, saving the community tax dollars.
The building will be erected where the current high school track is located, off of Wilhelm Avenue.
Development in Lebanon County: Developer seeks 10-year tax abatement on luxury apartments from Palmyra School District
Gators on the loose:Two alligators missing, possibly stolen, from North Cornwall home
“We’re just elated we came in on-number. As we’ve been saying from the onset, we were gonna pay this in cash, which we’re going to be able to do,” president of the board Robert Okonak said. “Which is huge for the community as far as saving tax dollars down the road.”
There were concerns that the bids would be higher than they had been originally estimated in February as inflation and pandemic related supply chain issues have caused construction material prices to fluctuate drastically.
If the costs had exceeded 8% of the originally approved budget, the district would have had to have conducted a second Act 34 hearing regarding the project.
Fortunately, the district managed to come under estimates.
The initial estimates set on Feb. 7 predicted a cost of $62,676,371 for the entire project.
The two lowest bids for general construction on the project came in less than one half of one percent from each other, Hoffman said.
“Throughout the state many of the schools, because of all the issue with inflation and inability to get materials or whatever,” said Bob Hoffman of Beers + Hoffman Architecture, “have been coming in 15, 20 and 25 percent above budget, and we were proactively prepared for that.”
According to the Beers + Hoffman website, the school will be nearly 143,000 square feet and will be home to 450 students in each grade.
The school will feature a gymnasium with seating for 2,000, state-of-the-art weight and athletic rooms and a library and media room complete with a filming studio.
A full virtual tour of the new middle school can be found on the WLHS TV Youtube channel.
The project came as a result of student population growth in the district. Once seventh- and eighth-graders are moved into the new school, renovations will begin on the current middle school at 350 N 8th St. Fifth- and sixth-graders will then be moved from the elementary schools and into the renovated middle school.
This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Lebanon School District accepts bids on new middle school
