Lehighton Area School District unanimously approved a contract with SitelogIQ on Monday night to conduct a comprehensive facilities condition assessment aimed at developing a long-term maintenance plan for district buildings.

The board voted to approve two separate agreements with SitelogIQ: a one-year contract for facility condition assessment services costing $26,163 and a subscription to mySiteIQ for $13,082, along with a grant writing and consulting services agreement at a 4% commission rate for grants awarded through the contractor’s efforts.

Superintendent Jason Moser, who presented the proposal to the board, emphasized the critical need for comprehensive facilities planning.

“This is really important for budgeting purposes, for understanding what we do need to set aside,” Moser said during an April workshop session. “How much should we be saving? How much should be saving the capital reserve? We really don’t know until we know.”

Moser clarified that seeking external assistance was not a reflection of current staff capabilities.

“Going down this road of looking for a professional service to come in and do this sort of sort of surveying of our assets is in no way shape or form an indictment on Justin Smith or on his maintenance group,” he said. “The reality is that, internally, we just do not have the capacity to get a study like this done and do all the other daily operations that we must do. It is unfeasible.”

The decision comes as state legislation may soon require such assessments. Moser updated the board in April on two pending bills: Senate Bill 84, which “would actually require school districts to essentially do a complete asset survey and provide that to the state if they wanted to be eligible for future state-funded grant projects.”

He noted this bill appears to be “fast tracked through the state Senate” and could require assessments every seven years for districts wanting to participate in state-funded grants.

House Bill 726 represents another potential mandate, though Moser indicated it “does not seem as likely to pass.”

The board considered three vendors for the facilities assessment work: Master Library, FMX and SitelogIQ. While all three offered comparable platforms and user-friendly databases, SitelogIQ emerged as the preferred choice based on its unique value proposition.

“SitelogIQ provides a much better deal,” Moser said in April, noting that while SitelogIQ’s annual subscription fee is higher than competitors, the company offers significant advantages. “Even if you pay the $26,000 and you do one project with them, that $26,000 gets applied to that first project,” he said.

Additionally, SitelogIQ waived annual subscription costs for districts engaged with them as guaranteed energy services contractors and provides grant writing services at no cost.

The company specializes in Guaranteed Energy Savings Act projects, which are exempt from traditional bidding processes.

Moser consulted with two other school districts that had worked with SitelogIQ and received positive feedback.

The facilities assessment will cover all district buildings from “roofs to basements” and include documentation of equipment and existing files. The comprehensive survey will create a database that can generate reports for capital planning and preventative maintenance scheduling.

Moser noted that deferred maintenance represents a significant cost burden for school districts.

“The biggest waste of money in public education at times, quite frankly, is due to deferred maintenance costs,” he said.

Board member Duane Dellecker supported the initiative, stating he was “not in favor of just kicking the can down the road so that we end up with problems for either the future of this board, or future boards to deal with if we don’t have a comprehensive maintenance facilities plan in place.”