North Penn Sets January Referendum Date for High School Renovations

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

The vote that will shape the future of North Penn High School now has a date.

School board members voted unanimously on Thursday night to set a date of January 16, 2024 for a voter referendum on borrowing roughly $97 million to move ninth-graders to the high school.

"We are putting the decision in the hands of the folks who should be making it — you all, North Penn,” said board vice president Christian Fusco.

"This is a community decision: Do we want to do this, or do we not? The choice, and the consequences, are going to affect this community for decades to come,” he said.

Since the start of the year, talks have picked up on the planned renovations to the school, to modernize and possibly expand the facility and upgrade and repair utilities that in places date back to the original school’s construction in the early 1970s.

Staff and the board worked with architect The Schrader Group to study traffic upgrades needed around the school, presented in February on recent equipment failures, gave cost estimates in March for a planned new ninth-grade wing of the school and a revamp of the existing building and adjacent properties, and sought bids from, then interviewed firms to act as the construction manager for that project.

An invite-only meeting was held in July for students and community members to test site layouts, a construction management firm was hired in early August, and the board has discussed timelines for a voter referendum for the debt needed to add classroom space for moving ninth grade from the district’s three middle schools to the high school. The first set of renderings revealed in September then showed how ninth grade could be incorporated into new spaces added throughout the existing school, instead of a standalone addition.

If the referendum passes, the high school project would move ninth grade onto that campus, a connecting driveway would be added creating a new access to Sumneytown Pike, a new commons area and gym would be included, and no temporary modular space would be needed.

Costs Exceed $400 Million

Latest cost estimates presented by Schrader in October call for a total project cost of $403 million for "Option One,” including the ninth grade additions of roughly 313,000 square feet and renovation of roughly 496,000 square feet of the existing school, with the smaller "Option Two” without ninth grade estimated at roughly $236 million.

Those talks led to the vote up for board approval on Thursday night, as superintendent Todd Bauer asked the board to approve a resolution authorizing "with the assent of the electors” new debt of just over $97 million, "for the purpose of financing new construction that includes space for ninth grade students” at the high school, sets a referendum date of Jan. 16, 2024, and approves public notice of that date.

District CFO Steve Skrocki then added that any new bond issue needed for that debt would likely be issued in late 2024, "and then the phasing-in of that millage necessary to repay that debt would start in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2025.”

Bauer asked for clarification on the cost savings between holding a special election in January against holding the vote on the state’s April 23 primary date, and Skrocki said early projections have indicated significant savings, well above the roughly $340,000 cost to the district to hold the referendum.

"If you are starting to engage the services of the contractors sooner, you have time value of money involved here, and getting to the decision sooner, on a present value basis, saves the district about $4 million, by having the answer to the referendum sooner,” Skrocki said.

"If the referendum fails, we get to option two sooner as well,” with correspondingly smaller savings by starting the smaller project, he said.

Tax Impact on Residents

During public comments at the start of the meeting, several residents asked questions about the referendum and the public talks held so far. Pauline Braccio asked if the district and/or consultants had surveyed current students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades about whether they wanted ninth-grades on the complex, and Bauer said they had, as part of a series of school climate surveys done over the past several years.

"All high school students were surveyed, and small focus groups were interviewed as well,” he said.

Resident Vince Altieri, who’s running for a seat on the board, said he took a tour of the school earlier in the week with district administrators, and said he "learned a lot, and think it was great,” before questioning political statements made by board members and candidates on social media.

Resident Jason Lanier questioned the cost estimates and the timing of the tax impact, and Skrocki said updated cost estimates would be presented in November, likely at the board’s Nov. 8 finance committee meeting.

"The question I have is, is any of this beneficial to the student? I understand the need to renovate the high school. I understand the desire to put ninth graders in the high school. But what I don’t understand is why it costs $400 million to get them there,” Lanier said.

Board candidate Diana Blystone asked if the board would guarantee that the second option would be implemented if voters choose against the referendum, and compared spending on the high school’s Crawford Stadium renovations in 2020-21 against additional staffing and programming for special education students.

Parent Jesse Blanc said he’s been following the debate closely, but not fully in agreement. "You haven’t sold me on it yet. I toured (the building) on Tuesday night, I don’t understand the cost of it. And I think myself, and other members of the community — you could do a better job of selling us on the why,” he said. "I feel as if, before we rush to vote, we need to take some time, and stretch it out. Not everybody is sold.”

Board member Elisha Gee said she has family who are on a fixed income, and asked for clarity on the tax impact, and Skrocki said the board would still approve an annual district budget in spring 2024 for the 2024-25 schoolyear, and that budget could include a tax increase up to the state-set Act 1 index, but any additional millage increase for a bond borrowing would likely be a year later.

"We’re not anticipating a borrowing until late 2024, or maybe even early 2025, depending on market conditions, the timing of that first debt service payment probably will not occur until the 2025-26 fiscal year,” Skrocki said.

Board President Tina Stoll added that the district’s "Reimagine NPHS” website, which contains the latest plans and presentations about the project, also features a calculator that homeowners can use to calculate their tax impact, and Skrocki said updated financials would likely be presented in November. For the average homeowner, with an assessed value of $150,000 or market value of roughly $380,000, Skrocki said, district projections have calculated a total impact of $5,150 over 32 years to that homeowner, in extra taxes to pay for the renovations.

In-school traffic jam

Fusco told the board he’d heard earlier that day about one more reason the high school needs an update.

"I was having a conversation with my daughter tonight, and she was telling me about something called the ‘E-Pod clog,’ which apparently is a four-way intersection somewhere in the building, where it notoriously halts student progress from class to class for anywhere from a minute to two minutes,” he said.

"It sounds like a safety concern to me as well. But I think it’s just one of those examples, and I’m sure if you ask the students they would give you a litany of other examples, of reasons why the building has served its purpose, but is just simply inadequate at this time,” Fusco said.

Roughly 30 years ago, a prior board voted against adding a second high school in the district, Fusco added, and in hindsight the choice to make short-term fixes to the existing school may have been a mistake.

"It’s been 50 years — cars have evolved, our homes have evolved, our lives have evolved. It is absolutely time for this high school to evolve,” he said.

Altieri asked why the referendum question could not be asked this November, and Stoll answered that "it would not have been finished in time to have the ballots printed out” and mailed to voters in time.

"It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we want to make sure we’re doing it methodically, and correctly,” Stoll said.

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Nov. 8, with the finance committee meeting that night at 6 p.m., both at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock Street. For more information visit www.NPenn.org.

This story has been updated to reflect an estimated cost of $236 million for the high school renovation option without the ninth grade addition.

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