The Tamaqua Area School Board will be looking at replacing a solar inverter for the array at the Tamaqua Elementary School and a 17-year-old hot water boiler at the high school.

The board finance committee on Tuesday advanced both replacements to next week’s meeting for a full board vote.

The solar inverter is expected to cost just under $23,000 from McClure Co., which is a COSTAR vendor, Business Manager Connie Ligenza said.

“I believe this is the first one that we’ve done since we installed the arrays,” she said.

The board will also replace the hot water heater at a cost not to exceed $140,000, also through the McClure Co., the company that the district entered into an energy savings and infrastructure upgrade contract earlier this year.

That districtwide project is guaranteeing $2 million in savings over the next 20 years by tackling infrastructure projects such as boilers, chillers and LED lighting retrofits.

The hot water heater at the high school was not among those planned upgrades, Superintendent Dr. Stephen Toth said.

Ligenza noted the failed hot water heater was installed as part of the geothermal project that the district took on in 2009. The new hot water heater will come out of Capital Projects funds, he said.

The district is also looking at warranty and service agreements with Weatherproofing Technologies as follows: high school roof repairs for the 10-year warranty renewal, $38,000; and the warranty and Tremcare Gold maintenance agreement for the high school and West Penn Elementary, $64,000.

Door security, door replacements and repairs and security equipment will also be undertaken using Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and Morgan Foundation grants.

The upgrades are not to exceed a combined $145,000 and will be done through approved COSTARS vendors.

Another Morgan Foundation grant-funded purchase will be for the UPS battery backup technology from Mechanical Advantage not to exceed $26,000.

Ligenza also let the board know that the Act 1 index for the 2027-28 budget cycle is 5%, which will give the district just over 0.4 mills under the new millage rate or $736,000 for the district.

“I will have on next month’s agenda a motion to either proceed down the normal budget path and potentially pursue any referendum extension, or not to exceed any index,” she said.

“I wanted to share that data before we discuss that further next month,” Ligenza said.