Rendering of North Penn High School’s K-pod main office reception area after planned renovations, and inset photo showing the current office. (Credit: NPSD)
Committee votes ahead contract amendments for February approval
The price tag for the first phase of renovations to North Penn High School could come into focus soon.
Bids are slated to be opened early next week on renovations to the high school’s natatorium and K-pod, marking the next milestone in a project expected to run into the 2030s.
“We were out to bid as advertised in December, did our pre-bid meeting, contractors have had access to the building, to get in to take a look. Our bids are due this week,” said project construction manager Jamie Lynch.
“Work would start in the building with the natatorium near the end of May, and K-pod after the students leave. We’ve got the fuel tank removal and the site work that is included in this, that would happen over the summer,” he said.
Over the past several years, school board members and staff have held lengthy talks about renovations to the high school, and the most recent plans have split the project into two phases. The first would tackle the school’s K-pod and natatorium, and move a propane tank and fueling station currently at the rear of the school closer to the Valley Forge Road entrance, while the second phase would build a new addition between the current A-pod and H-pod at the current rear of the school, then move students into that addition as the remaining pods are renovated over several years.
During the school board facilities and operations committee meeting on Monday night, Lynch gave an update on several aspects of the project, including the first phase of renovations slated to start this year, the second larger project scheduled to start in 2026, and a pair of contract amendments requested for school board approval in February.
For phase one, Lynch told the committee, the project construction manager and architect have identified outdoor staging areas throughout the high school campus for contractors to place equipment, while maintaining parking and travel lanes for both buses and parents. The project team has also developed plans to tackle the interior renovations of K-pod, which was built in the late 1990s and contains the school’s main entrance and administrative offices below two floors of classrooms.
“In each floor of K-pod, we have a similar group of milestones for each of the contractors to meet, and the phasing plans also identify temporary walls and features that the contractor needs to install to keep school separate from construction,” Lynch said.
The academic calendar for students is also being taken into account.
“We’ve also included the standardized testing dates in the building, and given the contractors direction on how they need to stay away from loud and disruptive work in those time periods,” he said.
Making space
As part of the planning process, Lynch added, the construction team has worked with administrator for secondary education and renovations Pete Nicholson to identify spaces where temporary classrooms can be created: a total of 14 new classrooms will be added by converting space in the current auditorium, C-pod, cafeteria, and library so other areas can be renovated.
Project construction manager Jamie Lynch, inset, shows a site plan depicting North Penn High School and several areas shaded in grey where new temporary classrooms will be added during renovations starting in summer 2025, as presented during the Jan. 27, 2025 facilities and operations committee. (Credit: NPTV video)“There’s a lot of work to be done in the first summer, to get these classrooms set up and ready to go, so we can go from floor to floor in a methodical manner. And these classrooms remain during phase two, to provide swing space as we go through the renovations,” he said.
The project team have met “numerous times” with Towamencin Township officials to identify whether the transportation building will need approval to maintain its existing non-conforming use there, and to finalize details of new signage, and have worked with PECO to ID power and gas lines and electrical equipment that can be pre-ordered, and with the North Penn Water Authority to identify water lines that will be relocated as part of phase one.
Bids due soon
As for the bids: the design team held a meeting with interested contractors on Jan. 7 which had “exceptional attendance,” Lynch said, and the district has since issued several addendums to bid documents to add specifications for parts of the plans. Once those bids are in, cost figures will be reviewed by the project team and district and brought forward to the facilities and operations committee for discussion and vetting, and that group would then make a recommendation to the full board.
Design of the transportation building is also “well underway,” with a meeting held within the past week to verify the floor plan and site arrangements for that facility, Lynch told the board.
Updated cost estimates put the total project at just over $259 million, to be financed via a series of long-term bond borrowings over the next several years, and of that total the transportation building is estimated to cost roughly $10.9 million and the K-pod and natatorium renovations roughly $33.3 million, with specific costs to be shared with the board once those bids are in.
“We have decided to move the bid date from Thursday, Jan. 30, to Monday, February 3rd, in order to give the contractors a little more time to refine their numbers,” said district Director of Facilities and Operations Bill Slawter.
Extreme makeover
Architect Devin Bradbury also showed a series of renderings depicting what the future hallways and office space of K-pod would look like after the renovations, with before-and-after photos showing the current areas inset below their new look.
Rendering of North Penn High School’s K-pod corridors after planned renovations, and inset photo showing the current look of the same area. (Credit: NPSD)“For all of these, you can see the existing conditions, and the rendering of what the space will be,” he said.
In the main office reception area, small windows would be replaced with full floor-to-ceiling ones, with extra seating in front of those windows for students waiting for attention — and a blue and white NP logo behind the front desk.
“We are working with your students and your staff to help define what those graphics are going to be,” he said.
On the first floor corridors, lockers running along both sides of the hallway would be removed and replaced with desk and seating areas, “to bring students outside of the classrooms for individual reading or studying, or some small group spaces, and get rid of the lockers no one’s using,” Bradbury said.
First floor labs and classrooms would get similar revamps, with new fixtures and furnishings accompanied by larger windows, and the nurse suite has “not a lot of moving parts” but would have a similar makeover. Chemistry classrooms on the third floor of K-pod would also be revamped, with hardened counters and moveable desks and chairs to allow for flexibility, all based on “multiple end-user meetings with the science department: all of this is exactly what the teachers and staff have requested,” Bradbury said.
Contract amendments voted ahead
Slawter also gave an update on two contract amendments requested by the project team as part of the transportation building project. The two amendments would allow additional work required by the township to survey the trees that currently exist on the former WNPV Radio site adjacent to the school, where the transportation building will be moved.
Rendering of North Penn High School K-pod lab room after planned renovations, and inset photo showing the current look of the same area. (Credit: NPSD)“We have to remove some of the trees in that area, in order to slide the new transportation building back. So we have to survey the trees, the type and size, so that they can be replaced in-kind,” Slawter said.
The facilities and operations committee voted ahead both contract amendments for full board approval when that group next meets on Feb. 11. That meeting will be held at 7 p.m. and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 24; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.
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