Pennsbury Renovations Keep on Rolling

While the headline gives you a chuckle as you focus on an unusual mental picture to start your morning,(think First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt with Stacy and Clinton on What Not To Wear) this morning's BCCT story shows the real expense level connected with building maintenance.

Translation: It doesn't stop. The low to nonexistent level of expenditures Morrisville has earmarked for renovations and upgrades over the past 20-30 years means that the bill is coming due, well, just about...now. And the maître d' is anxious because the district's Visa card was just rejected for the third time.

Study to determine renovations needed for Eleanor Roosevelt

By MANASEE WAGH

Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary School in Falls will be getting a much-needed overhaul.

Architects are about to conduct a feasibility study on the 45-year-old Pennsbury school, which houses about 500 students.

“One of the biggest reasons is that the school is not air conditioned. We’re adding air conditioning in our schools and replacing old, inefficient heating systems,” said Gregory Lucidi, the school board president.

In the cases of some schools, the heating systems date back to the original construction, he added.

The district has been repairing buildings to eliminate problems with electrical systems, leaky roofs and inefficient windows that leak heat during cold seasons, said Lucidi. Replacing older windows with more efficient ones helps control fuel costs.

The lack of air conditioning in several buildings is particularly bothersome.

During a heat wave two weeks ago, when temperatures soared well into the 90s, children were sent home early from all three of the Pennsbury middle schools and three of its elementary schools. Most of the structures don’t have air conditioning.

The two high school buildings have air conditioning.

The next step for Eleanor Roosevelt involves finding out exactly what repairs need to be tackled. Based on the feasibility study, architects will present the district with an approximate list of repairs and an estimated cost.

The timeline from the feasibility study to complete renovations is still hazy, said Lucidi.

Usually the feasibility study and the board’s consideration of the architect’s specific findings take a few months, Lucidi said. Then the district starts the approval process with the school’s municipality. A district may need to get approval for zoning variances, for example.

It also has to plow through a process for state approvals.

Once all approvals are obtained, the board starts the process of going out to bid on the specific renovation requirements.

“Schools are kind of unique. They’re occupied, so renovations have to work around students,” said Lucidi. Usually work starts directly after school lets out for the summer. Then, during the subsequent school year, architects and engineers do whatever work they can, and generally finish up in the next summer, he said.

That’s how it worked for Oxford Valley Elementary School, originally built in 1953.

Structural, plumbing, electrical, heating and air-conditioning renovations should be done by the end of summer.

In at least the past five years, Pennsbury has plunged into renovations on several of its schools, like Penn Valley, Manor and Walt Disney Elementary schools and Pennsbury High School West.

Planned renovations for 77-year-old Makefield Elementary are awaiting approval by Lower Makefield officials.

“The renovations will protect a lot of the original architectural treatments that are still intact, to preserve the historic integrity of the structure,” said district spokeswoman Ann Langtry.

Makefield Elementary and the Fallsington administration building, dating to 1917, are the two oldest structures in the school district, she said.

The district will likely scrutinize middle schools next, said Lucidi.