Quakertown committee advances $63M Quaker Town Elementary design, recommends abatement and modular bids; solar added as bid alternate

Quakertown Community School Districtacilities and finance committee members on Jan. 8 endorsed taking the design-development package for a new Quaker Town Elementary School to the full board and approved several procurement recommendations tied to the project.

Jamie Lynch of CHA, the district esign consultant, said the projectstimate from schematic design is "presently holding at just over 63,000,000." The committee received presentations on site changes, traffic and stormwater measures, required permits and a budget snapshot showing grants and contingencies under active review.

Why it matters: the plan would replace or substantially renovate the nearly 100-year-old Quaker Town Elementary to relieve overcrowding and address deferred maintenance (window and stucco repairs, asbestos/lead abatement, ADA and HVAC upgrades). The project would reshape drop-off circulation, add parking, and add stormwater basins to reduce peak discharge rates.

Design and permitting: Terry DeGroup, the project civil engineer, outlined land-development and permit steps: borough review, Bucks County Planning Commission, Bucks County Conservation District NPDES/MPDS permitting, and a sewer-planning module that must follow Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission (PHMC) clearance. On stormwater he said the project will improve discharge control—"The short answer is yes," DeGroup said—while noting infiltration is restricted by shallow groundwater.

Procurement recommendations: staff reported the abatement package (designed by environmental consultant ECS) drew six bids on a $500,000 budget; the low, responsive bid from Neuber Environmental was $208,900, and ECS recommended award. For modular classroom work at the sixth-grade center, Penn Builders submitted the low responsive bid within the $3,000,000 modular/playground/life-safety budget; staff recommended issuing a notice of intent to award and taking contracts to the board for approval.

Other action items the committee recommended sending to the board included a cooperative purchase to relocate the QE playground ($56,000 estimate from Lions Recreation) and a life-safety integration purchase (Genetec integration, estimated below $25,000). Two contract amendments for Schrader Group were also recommended: PHMC historic-preservation services and an expanded traffic study.

Budget and funding: Lynch said the schematic-design estimate remains at roughly $63 million but noted that the design contingency has tightened. He identified $157,000 in environmental-abatement grant funds credited against abatement cost and said the team is pursuing additional grants to reduce net cost. Committee members discussed options for financing work (bonding, the capital-reserve fund and general-fund use); finance staff noted a capital reserve balance of approximately $3,100,000 that could be applied to some projects.

Solar question: staff presented a preliminary rooftop solar plan that could serve about 32% of building load at an early installed-cost estimate near $700,000 and an assumed payback of 15120 years. Committee members agreed by consensus to include solar as a bid alternate and to ensure the roof structure is designed to accept panels rather than exclude the possibility at bid time.

Next steps: staff will bring recommended awards, contract amendments and cooperative-purchase actions to the full board at its January meeting for formal approval; designers will continue construction documents pending permitting feedback. Traffic and parking studies are underway and PHMC clearance remains a gating item for the sewer planning module and land-development approval.

The committee id not take final contract awards at the meeting; it advanced recommendations and requested more detailed vendor-level cost/payback analyses for solar and disruption-impact information for the kindergarten relocation work.