BOYERTOWN — Replacing the original HVAC system and roof at the 64-year-old Boyertown Elementary School may cost as much as $14 million, engineers told the school board.
Engineers from D’Huy Engineer Services had been asked to conduct a study examining those costs and they delivered their report on Sept. 24.
Built in 1960, the unit ventilators in each classroom are original equipment and the refrigerant they use to cool the room is no longer produced and is illegal to put into new systems, said Kevin Burns, principal engineer with the firm.
Four options were presented as replacements; using heat pumps using either gas or electric for the heat, each of which had an estimated cost of about $5.4 million; a new central plant for heat and air conditioning which carries an estimated cost of more than $10 million and which does a poor job of removing humidity from the outside air it draws in; or replacing the current system elements as they fail, which has a cost of just under $4 million, but which creates problems because finding replacement parts is difficult.
The first two heat pump options, Burns said, “provide excellent thermal and humidity control,” have low operating costs and are very quiet so they create less of a distraction in the classroom.
Other upgrades needed would include the electrical switchboard, which is 60 years old; and the generator, which is 40 years old.
“You have a very good maintenance department,” said Burns. “They have taken things which were supposed to last 20 years and made them last 60 years.”
Also, the fire alarm system, although safe and functional, no longer meets the fire code and is no longer supported by the manufacturer, the board was told. The same is true of the building’s emergency lighting system.
As for the roof, Chris Allen, a senior project manager with the company, said the current roof has only one layer of insulation, which probably explains most of the heat loss the building has been experiencing.
This might explain why the building’s annual electric bill is $88,300; whereas the electric bill at Gilbertsville Elementary is only $32,700, said board member Ruth Dierolf.
In prior meetings, school board member Christine Neiman complained that the students often wear their outdoor coats in the classroom because they can be so cold.
As with the HVAC systems, the engineers offered the district four options when it came to replacing the school roof.
There are two different types of “single-ply” plastic roofs, each of which would need “walks ways” to ensure those servicing any units on the roof would not break the surface, and which were both estimated to cost about $3.9 million. The other choices were a “multi-ply” roof, which would have a granular mineral covering with a cost of about $4.4 million; and a more conventional roof with a tar coating and gravel finish, estimated to cost a little less than $4.7 million.
Hopefully, said Allen, some of the metal parts of the raised mansard roof pieces can be re-used, but the estimates were done under the worst-case scenario assumption that they could not, so as not to underestimate the potential cost of the project.
Allen suggested that when it comes time to bid on the project, all options be bid as alternates. “Then we can look at the numbers and see where they fall,” he said.
The timeline presented would require a decision by the school board in December. And because there is concern about being able to procure all the materials needed for both projects, the engineers suggested it would be better to plan for the summer of 2026, or perhaps even 2027 to ensure the materials are available.
That would also allow both projects to be done at the same time.
Finance Director Patricia Denicola said capital reserve funds could be used to undertake the project.
She said there is enough in that fund to pay for the project even if the same fund is also tapped for the turf fields project, estimated to cost about $7 million.
When the budget was adopted in May, the budget figures indicated the district’s capital reserve fund stood at about $10 million.
