Engineers present $76M in completed work and prioritized capital needs for Scranton SD

The Scranton School District budget committee received a compressed feasibility presentation on March 25 from Dewey Engineering (Ethan and Arif Fazil) summarizing a voluminous capital-improvement plan that lists completed work since 2020, facility narratives, component-level inventories, and prioritized projects.

Presenters said the firm had documented roughly $76 million in projects completed since January 2020 and itemized systems-level needs across the district's 1.6 million square feet of school facilities. The firm used a scoring matrix (safety, educational impact, energy, life expectancy) to rank needs; the highest-priority items include fire-alarm replacements, generators, masonry repairs and several school-specific renovations. Dewey estimated total building replacement value at about $864 million and noted that site infrastructure (parking lots, stadiums, fields) adds significant additional costs.

The consultants reported change orders across multiple projects totaled about $1.8 million, of which approximately $1.2 million reflected building-permit costs; presenters said the net unforeseen change-order amount represented roughly 0.81% of the $76 million in work. They recommended integrating the feasibility plan with a utilization study and continuing to pursue grants, noting over half of recent expenditures were funded by RCAP and ESSER sources.

Next steps: staff and consultants will refine priorities, reconcile project totals, and present specific budget recommendations and bid-ready packages for board consideration.