West Mifflin Area board to address financial matters before school begins

Items on Thursday’s agenda include the purchase of 200 laptops.

The West Mifflin Area school board will vote on several projects and financial items Thursday before the new school year starts Aug. 20.

A lease agreement is set to be ratified with First National Bank to finance the purchase of 200 professional staff laptops at a cost of $199,600 for four years at a borrowing rate of 4.94%. The annual payments of $53,565.02 will be paid before each school year begins.

During last week’s workshop meeting, Director of Finance and Operations Edward Wehrer said the borrowing rate is very competitive and the cost was approved already. They received two other quotes and they were both over 7%.

“The reason why we are doing a ratification is because we want to try to make sure these are ready for the start of the school year,” Wehrer said. “So if we waited until next week to get them, there was no way we were going to get them out before the school year. We anticipate them to be handed out (next) Friday.”

The board is also set to approve the closing of three district bank accounts with Pennsylvania School District Liquid Asset Fund and to deposit a total of $164,000 into the capital projects fund.

Wehrer said these are extra bank accounts that the district does not need to keep track of on a monthly basis. He added it would be a small gain in efficiency, but it will help them in the long run, and the accounts haven’t been touched since 2023.

“As we do this, we are going to close those accounts, but we are actually going to leave them dormant so that if we have interest or need in the future to use them, the accounts already exist and we can put money in there instead of having to go through account creation,” Wehrer said. “We are basically going into a dormant status with PSDLAF instead of ending all relationships.”

The district has a quote from Vasco Asphalt Company to install nine speed bumps on the secondary campus at a cost of $11,920 through the Omnia Partners purchasing program. A vote will take place Thursday.

Administrators already put this project out to bid, and it came out to higher numbers, so they tried again, according to Superintendent Jeffery Soles, at around $50,000. These are all new speed bumps, and other pavement improvements will also be done around the campus.

There will be three speed bumps in the back of the high school, three in the front, one behind the middle school, one before down the hill by the middle school and one halfway down that hill, according to Facilities Director Mark Zidek.

The middle school also had reports of mold issues in two classrooms that were already handled, Soles said.

“We got the call there was a 4-by-8 section in the wall,” Zidek said. “There was mold, we got rid of all the mold, we got air samples, we called a restoration to take out what we didn’t get and put everything back. They are repainting the classrooms, retiling and we need another air sample for it to be all clear.”

The district also received a proposal from Adelphoi Education to provide partial hospitalization programs in both the middle and high schools at a cost of $1,093,209. Deer Lakes School District also has this service.

Wehrer said there is a capacity for 10 students in each program, and the expectation is to use eight at the middle school and high school, and $60,000 will be returned to the district if they do the program in house.

“If those 16 students were placed somewhere other than our district, it is a low estimate that it would cost $60,000 for each of those students,” Wehrer said. “So right there is $960,000 that we are not spending if they would go out. A nonmonetary benefit is they are in our school, they are within our curriculum and are not falling behind academically.”

Board president Kevin Squires said the program is transient and is not intended to be permanent, so it is helpful to have them on the West Mifflin campus.

This program helps students with significant emotional or therapeutic needs continue their schooling in the district, according to Wehrer, who said the program is “really impactful.”

“We are giving them social, emotional and academic support that would be lacking otherwise, and we are getting around $500,000 back as a conservative estimate in reimbursement monies in tuition and insurance,” Wehrer said. “It’s good financially, it’s good academically, it’s good for kids and families.”

In other business:

• Breakfast/Lunch pricing for the 2025-26 school year will be voted on this week. Elementary/middle/ high school students’ breakfast and lunch will be free, while adult breakfast will be $3, lunch is $5, adult entree only is $3.25, adult entrée salad at the middle/high school is $4.75 and at the elementary school $3.50.

• Several other agreements before the school year starts will be voted on as well, including one with the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, Adelphoi Education for other programs, Schoology. Naviance, ELA services and more.