In the upcoming school year, a new construction project will kick off at both the elementary and the high school. The project is set to be in a planning phase throughout the 2023-2024 school year, and will officially begin work during the summer of 2024.

Superintendent Greg Walker was a part of the decision-making for this project, along with the School Board, but there is still much work to be done.

“We just did a contract with a company called Site Logiq. They have done a facility study and come back and they’ve shown us areas that need to be looked at, like different parts of our HVAC system, part of our roofs and things like that. So, now that we’ve entered into a contract with them, they’ll come back, they’ll dig in a little bit deeper, and then we’ll decide exactly what the project will entail,” said Walker.

Some of the details regarding the HVAC system are still in the works, but all work will begin after the 2023-2024 school year.

As for the things we are aware of, there are many things that will be worked on in Throop.

“At the elementary school, we’re going to replace two boilers. One boiler is in dire need of replacement. The other one could maybe make it a little bit longer, but to get that one out, we have to take out a whole wall. So, while we’re taking that wall out, we might as well replace two, so we’re gonna do both of them. Then we’re going to replace some AC condensing units for the gym and cafeteria that need to be replaced,” said Walker.

Along with the new changes in the elementary, they are also expanding on the ventilation rework that was started in 2020. 

“We have 17 exhaust fans throughout the building that are not working that have to be replaced. And then there’s 10 classrooms of the project that we did back in 2020 that we weren’t able to do with that project. So, we’re going to finish those up and replace the unit ventilators in those 10 classrooms,” said Walker.

While these changes are being made to the elementary, there is also work to be done in the High School. 

“Here at the high school, the gym, locker rooms, office area, cafeteria, and a little area north of the gym, the roofs are going to be completely torn off and replaced. Then there’s an air handling unit that needs to be replaced. There’s two air units right now. One of them doesn’t work, which is okay, one unit will do it, but if that unit goes down, there’s no backup,” said Walker.

Site Logiq is a company the school has just recently decided to work with. In the past PHS worked with a company called Kovert Hawkins, but with this new project they have decided to make a switch.

“Orleans uses Site Logiq and have been really pleased with the work that they’ve done up there. What we like about them is they have their own in-house engineers, architects, where Kovert Hawkins was just an architecture firm, so they had to bring in outside engineers and things like that. We liked that it was all in-house,” said Walker.

One of the biggest worries when starting these kinds of projects is cost. The estimated amount of work needing to be done will cost around $4.4 million. 

“We have some debt falling off. So, when we do projects, we like to do them and keep our tax rate flat so we don’t increase taxes on folks,” said Walker.

This project is in the early planning stages, so there will be more information once things are finalized.