The cost to renovate Jim Thorpe Area School District’s buildings has jumped significantly since September, with updated estimates from EI Associates now ranging from $44.6 million to $50.8 million, depending on how grades are configured.

In September, the firm took figures from its original feasibility study and applied a blanket inflation factor. At Wednesday’s board committee meeting, consultants Abby Wallar and Adam Kerr went line by line through the study, inflating only the costs that warranted it.

Kerr said fuel costs factored heavily into the increases, since bids wouldn’t go out until early 2028.

“Probably the biggest factor for us when we’re trying to estimate construction is fuel. It affects so much; materials, shipping, getting products to the site,” Kerr said. “We wanted to make sure we were covered on that front.”

The revised numbers show four options. Option 1, the status quo, keeps both Penn Kidder Campus and L.B. Morris School as K-8 buildings, adding three classrooms to each, and comes in at $47.6 million in total project costs. Option 2A, which would realign grades to create a K-3 school at Penn Kidder and a grades 4-8 school at L.B. Morris, is $44.6 million. Option 2B, a K-4/grades 5-8 split, is $45.5 million. Option 4B, the most expensive at $50.8 million, would convert both elementary campuses to K-6 buildings and the high school to a 7-12 junior-senior high school.

All four options address Rank 1 and Rank 2 building deficiencies at all three campuses. Total project costs include a 3% annual inflation factor applied over five years to account for the time before bids go out.

The cost figures alone don’t tell the full story, Superintendent Robert Presley said. When annual operational savings are factored in, Options 2A and 2B look significantly different from the rest.

Both grade-realignment options generate approximately $2 million in annual operational savings — primarily through the elimination of one teacher per grade level. Option 1 generates no savings. Option 4B saves only $682,000 per year.

“Because of our K-8 structure, we have an extra teacher in almost every grade level,” Presley said. “If you consolidate without even increasing class sizes, you can pretty much remove a teacher from every grade level. We do that strategically through attrition.”

Over five years, that $2 million annual difference compounds.

“Over five years, that savings is $12.2 million, because you have to think about the teacher raises plus the increase in health costs as you go out,” Presley said.

The district’s annual debt service under Options 2A and 2B would run roughly $3.39 million and $3.45 million respectively. Subtract the $2 million in savings, and the net annual cost drops to approximately $1.39 million for 2A and $1.45 million for 2B. Under Option 1, the full $3.61 million annual debt service falls to the district with no offset.

Presley said the district has already trimmed what it can from the K-8 buildings under the status quo.

“If you remove any more, class sizes are jumping to the upper 20s,” he said. “The only way to save a bunch of money, you have to look at salaries and benefits — that’s where the most savings is.”

Beyond finances, Presley argued that concentrating all lower elementary students at Penn Kidder would allow the district to focus its Title One resources in a single building.

“The best educational decision is to get everybody in the same buildings and make that K-3 or K-4 setup where we just hit reading and math,” Presley said. “All of our Title One teachers are up there, and we really hit reading.”

If the board moves forward, the time frame calls for a notice to proceed in January 2027, design and permitting through the end of that year, bidding in January and February 2028, and construction from June 2028 through August 2029.

Current enrollment stands at 1,576 students — 1,142 in grades K-8 and 434 in grades 9-12. The district’s K-12 peak was 2,197 students in 2012-13. Two 10-year projection methods now both project continued decline, by 156 and 169 students respectively.

The district plans to hold at least two public town hall meetings, one in the Jim Thorpe area and one at Penn Kidder, before any vote is taken.