The Easton Area School District's ambitious plan to rebuild two schools and upgrade three others has a more ambitious price tag.
Engineer Josh Grice told the school board the estimate to build new Palmer and Cheston elementary schools and for work at the high school, Tracy and Forks elementaries is up from $100 million to $112 million.
Easton Area School District officials say the work is sorely needed and school construction has been overlooked for about 10 years due to a fiscal crisis and a disputed teachers' contract.
Some cost estimates are up because administrators recommend changes to outfit the schools for before and afterschool care programs and other programs providing the community access.
"We're trying very hard to look out 10 to 15 years from now and trying to meet the needs of students in a very different educational program," said Superintendent John Reinhart.
Grice gave updates on the following projects:
- Cheston Elementary School. The price is up from an estimated $28 million to about $31.8 million. A design committee recommends a three-story school to go north of the current school with the front facing Milton Street. The school will have Head Start classrooms, space for family connection programs, library and technology spaces open to the community and a health clinic. The administrative offices will be near the front so the entrance can be securely monitored.
- Palmer Elementary School. The price is up from $30 million to $33.2 million. The school district is working with township officials to integrate the new school with the master plan for trails and athletic fields at the adjacent Chrin Community Center. Plans call for moving the new school south of the current school, further away from Green Pond Road.
- Tracy Elementary School. The price is up from $8 million to about $10 million. Plans call for a new roof, heating, ventilation systems and the addition of central air conditioning. Since the ceilings and walls would be torn up for the work, it might be a good time to remove asbestos and add new electrical, plumbing, speaker, data, clock and multimedia systems to the 49-year-old school, Grice said.
- Forks Elementary School. The price us up from $6 million to $9 million. The plans and additions are similar to Tracy Elementary.
- Easton Area High School. A partial roof replacement is estimated at $3.2 million. This would be the fourth and final phase of roof replacements at the school.
Easton Area moving ahead with 2 new schools, 3 school overhauls
Grice said there's plenty of time to change the scope of the plans.
"What we started with as far as design can still be fluid," he said.
Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
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