EF updates district on Phase 2 of renovations

The Elizabeth Forward school board will decide if Phase 2 includes consolidation and closing schools.

Elizabeth Forward School Board held an informational special meeting this week to discuss the proposed addition of Phase 2 of the district’s high school renovation project.

The district has been working on Phase 1 construction at the high school, which consists of renovating the current spaces such as the gymnasium, auditorium and other updates.

Phase 2 consists of a possible expansion and consolidation — adding classrooms and corresponding additional grade capacity at the high school.

Phase 2 was considered in the general planning of the Phase 1 work and has a design and is ready to go out for bid.

“The district is faced with aging infrastructure and lower enrollment,” Superintendent Keith Konyk said during Wednesday’s meeting. “As the high school reminded us, we must take action to ensure that our students have a safe, secure learning environments. Construction costs and operating costs are increasing at an incredible rate and will continue to increase.”

When a school district undertakes a major school construction project and seeks reimbursement from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a process is initiated known as PlanCon — a set of forms and procedures used to apply for reimbursement.

However, with the current state and federal budget hiatus, this process is now on local governments, according to Konyk.

If the meeting were happening under PlanCon, it would be an Act 34 hearing, which is required to inform the public about the project.

In August, Elizabeth Township approved moving forward with the district’s consolidation plan, but there is no final approval from school board officials of consolidating the school district’s elementary schools and moving middle school age students to the high school campus.

The district also submitted a plan to township officials in code enforcement and planning that was approved a year ago, according to township Manager Tammy Firda.

The district currently has two $10 million bonds being used on construction, and the debt service is roughly $400,000 per year, according to director of finance and operations Al Ragan. The board approved a bond in August to use $45 million.

Seven million dollars in capitalized interest is going directly to the bank for debt service, according to Ragan. The bank will hold onto that bond issue for three years and will make the debt payments during that time.

“All of that is going to add $3 million to our debt service for borrowing,” Ragan said. “There is not going to be a tax increase because of this construction. The tax increase this year had nothing to do with construction. It had to do with education.”

David McLean of McLean Architects LLC has been updating the board since Phase 1 began. On Wednesday, he presented designs, the schedule and the scope of work for Phase 2.

Design and engineering have been completed for the bidding and construction documents. The project was advertised for bids Friday, the bids are due Nov. 6 and the project is scheduled for estimated completion Aug. 15, 2027, which is a year earlier due to starting some projects beforehand.

“There’s a bit of overlap between the project going on now and this project now that will occur in the spring and summer of 2026, and by our documents for the new project, we are being careful to separate the site work out and the contract storing areas,” McLean said. “In the event that the lowest bidders are not the contractors we have now on Phase 1, we will have additional contractors on site doing the work.”

Phase 1 was conducted on an emergency basis, according to Mc-Lean, due to the fire at the high school in 2023.

Phase 2, estimated to be around $40 million, is under conventional bidding, and will include an academic addition that is behind the current high school, as well as additional site improvements.

The academic addition has two academic wings for seventh and eighth grades with additional district and administration offices, and there will be a loop road around it at the back of the high school. The old gym would be used for the middle school, and the newer gym would be for the high school students.

“While we designed the sight so that someday the district would want to have buses directly into the middle school, our roadways are all wide enough to accommodate it,” McLean said. “The kids would be on the same buses on a similar schedule so they are coming into this building the same way that they do now. We are not necessarily causing a separate bus schedule for the two grades that will be coming over here.”

Around 41,000 square feet, the addition will be wrapped around the existing pool, with administrative offices, four classrooms on the first level in each wing for core classes, four classrooms on the second level in each wing, a dedicated science lab for each grade, small group instruction rooms, teacher planning rooms, restrooms and storage areas.

There are other site improvements along with renovations/addition of sports fields, exterior facade improvements, modernizing the building elevator, extending some roadways, moving of bus dispatching, electives will be in the high school and more. All plans are subject to change.

“We have bids set up for (the fields) so under the base bid of the project, there will be the improvements needed for the fields like fencing, infields, dugouts and accessories to the fields,” McLean said. “And then on this current project, we’ve asked for alternate pricing to upgrade these fields to synthetic turf if possible — significantly reducing the maintenance costs of the grass fields and allowing practices, games to be scheduled after bad weather. We have these broken out as ad-alternates.”

Konyk stated that the school district is at a crossroads because the school’s infrastructure cannot be sustainable for future generations of EF students, and the lower enrollment in the district.

“I don’t mean to be dramatic with this presentation to say we are at a crossroads, but we really do have to make decisions,” Konyk said. “We are looking at the expensive needs across the district that need to be addressed. The challenge is all those seven different buildings on six different sites are all in need of those major repairs.”

The average number of students is 191 through grades nine through 12; 179 students in each grade on average for grades six through eight; and 164 students in each grade on average through kindergarten to fifth grade. The lowest enrollments are in kindergarten and first grade this year.

He also cited a study by HDG Architects, formerly the Hayes Design Group, that was done in 2017 and presented to the school board in 2018. It listed some expensive updates that are needed at all of their buildings, including roofs, boilers and more. They have been making improvements in some of the spaces.

“We do definitely see those two factors that we have to consider, and make some decisions about,” Konyk said. “This year, we started with less than 150 kids in our kindergarten classes. As indicated by that 2018 Hayes Design Group study, we’re going to need a major improvement.”

The current middle school is the best location out of their buildings where they can include all elementary grades into one building, Konyk said, and none of the buildings are in a state where they can sustain much longer.

The fire in 2023 was also an acceleration point of getting their buildings under control, and the consolidation is a way to move the district into the future, according to Konyk, who discussed the other options that were offered during the Hayes study.

“As I became the superintendent on Jan. 4, 2023, this was nowhere on my horizon of something I wanted to tackle as a superintendent,” he said. “I realize that this (project) has presented its challenges to the district.”

They found consolidation is the best option for the district in the long run, and there are educational, operational and overall benefits, Konyk said.

The plan is to make a committee with members of the school board and the community to decide what is best to do with the two buildings, and they plan on being thoughtful about the locations since they are within communities.

“The key here is there are operational savings that are in this plan,” he added. “We think that’s key, and utilizing the current buildings that we have without major renovations also makes this much more cost effective.”

Konyk added that there will be two bus times, and the high school will start later than usual, which studies have found to be effective for learning. The district may add additional bus routes as well to accommodate those that live farther away from the schools.

Dr. Randal Sydeski, director of personnel and student services, said 25% of statewide teachers, or 6,500 last year, now are being certified in the state. Ten years ago, there were around 20,000 teachers.

Sydeski added that it is very difficult to staff aides and substitutes nowadays, and the district has started to decrease hiring personnel due to trying to transition over to three buildings. There would also be cost savings and safety benefits in the long run.

“It’s a dramatic drop in teachers,” he said. “By right sizing the district, we’ll have an opportunity to maximize our class sizes with teachers. There will be some opportunities for cross over. Perhaps a math teacher could go and fill their course schedule with a seventh grade class as well as an upper grade class.”