Hempfield Area to present new details on high school renovation, district budget next week

Hempfield Area School Board will present next week a schematic design for the district’s high school renovation.

The district has discussed in recent years overhauling the high school building — gutting and renovating the interior while leaving most of the exterior intact.

School officials declined to share details of the schematic design with TribLive on Monday night. The board will present and vote on the design at its next meeting, scheduled for May 19.

The renovation project was put on hold in August 2023, when bids for some of the work revealed the project’s cost ballooned to almost $150 million — nearly $20 million more than expected. The architecture firm working on the project, Core Architects, resigned from it six months later.

Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates was hired about a year ago to take over as architects, working alongside SitelogIQ and owner’s rep McKinley Architecture and Engineering.

The district has been back on track with the project this school year, unveiling in October improvement priorities and potential schematic designs. A two-story addition to the building’s front entrance — which could be used as a center for innovation — was a key component of the designs.

Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates presented two preliminary designs in October. One placed the two- story addition up against the existing building, and the other placed it at an angle — forming a courtyard in the center of the school.

School board weighs district budget

The school board will also vote on a proposed final budget for the 2025-26 school year.

The district revealed in April that it needs to close a $5.1 million gap in the budget. District business manager Paul Schott said expenditures for next academic year are up nearly $7.3 million from 2024-25, primarily due to rising charter school payments and growing retirement costs.

Schott declined to share details Monday night regarding the budget that the school board will vote on next week.

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed state budget sets a flat cyber tuition rate of $8,000 per student annually, capping the cost districts have to pay for students in their area to attend independent public cyber schools.

Annual cyber school tuition rates statewide range from about $7,600 per student to nearly $29,000 per student, according to Emily Roderick, Shapiro’s director of press operations.

Pennsylvania school districts got a respite from growing payments to the state’s Public School Employees Retirement System this school year. But the contribution rate will begin increasing again next school year.

The rate is projected to increase 4.6% by the 2032-33 school year — a contribution of 38.5%.

Hempfield Area School Board will vote on the high school schematic design and the district budget at 7 p.m. May 19 in the administration building.