Plans to renovate and repair the buildings in the Pleasant Valley School District are progressing, with first estimates totaling about $180 million.

Arif Fazil, president of D’Huy Engineering Inc. in Bethlehem, said the Capital Improvement Process began in 2020, but was tabled. He and Kim LaBrake, a project manager with D’Huy, attended the district’s planning meeting on Nov. 14 to present their findings and recommendations.

Fazil said he thinks the work will take between five to 10 years to complete. Between all of the various buildings, the district has about 1 million square feet of floor space. That doesn’t include outdoor space.

“If you had to renovate all of them, you’re looking at over $270 million,” Fazil said.

Still, the actual asset value of the buildings and property is much higher than the cost to renovate, he said.

In order to figure out what needed worked on and how soon, D’Huy Engineering prioritized the needs using a matrix. The items needing the most work were prioritized one through five, with one being the top priority.

From there, they calculated a percentage of how much of each building needs renovated. If it is over 60%, then it indicates that the building has not been updated well enough.

Here is how the district’s buildings faired, based on those calculations. Their percentage of work needing to be done and estimated cost are:

• PVES - 48%, $25 million;

• PVIS - 53%, 32.6 million;

• PVMS - 51%, 23.9 million;

• PVHS - main building - 111% $38.5 million;

• PVHS - 1995-2004 wing - 59%, $24.8 million;

• PVHS - J.C. Mills wing - 89% $17.2 million;

• Chestnuthill Elementary School - 64%, $6.9 million;

• Polk Elementary School - 47%, $6.5 million;

• Athletic fields - based on recommendations, $2.5 million, and Districtwide, $1.5 million.

The engineering firm found that the high school has the highest percentage of high-priority projects.

Fazil said they broke the high school down into three different buildings because it was built in three stages: 1959-1984, 1974, and 1995-2004.

“They were built at different times, but they also have different conditions and different building systems. One of the challenges at the high school is there are multiple electrical and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and other systems that were put in place when the different editions and different buildings were constructed,” Fazil said.

The main section of the building with the front entrances began in 1959. The J.C. Mill wing was built in 1974, and the third expansion began in 1995. It included the new gymnasium and related facilities, library and auditorium and connected the main part of the high school to the J.C. Mill section.

“The high school buildings do not warrant replacement as a whole,” Fazil said. “The 1994-2004 wing does not warrant a detailed renovation. It requires a more surgical renovation.”

In good news, Fazil said the classrooms are properly sized for a class of about 25 students. Some classrooms are larger.

What they did discover, though, is that there are 20 unused classrooms sprinkled throughout all three buildings.

Kim LaBrake said, “What we are trying to do is find out what we can do to use the building more efficiently, maybe by pulling some of the unused classrooms into the core, and pulling J.C. Mills classrooms into that area.”

Most of the unused classrooms are in the J.C. Mills wing, she said.

Superintendent James Konrad asked the school board members for volunteers to join the committee working in this project with the administration and the engineering firm.

School board directors Todd Kresge, Diane Serfass and Norm Burger volunteered, and Konrad set the first meeting for December, He would like to have two meetings per month. The plan is to have bids go out for the first project in 2024 and work beginning in 2025.