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The Greater Altoona Career and Technology Center will undergo another facility assessment after the Joint Operating Committee unanimously voted for a no-cost evaluation at Tuesday's meeting.
This evaluation follows GACTC's ongoing search to renovate their facility as they continue to near their student capacity.
The Efficiency Network, known as TEN, was awarded the facility assessment after Director of Business Operations Joe Richards gave board members a presentation showing past assessments from area schools.
He touted a recent project at the Greater Johnstown School District's Garfield Middle School. Being out of use for 11 years, the district expected to pay $34 million to renovate half of the building.
After TEN's assessment and renovation process, however, the district paid $30 million to revamp the entire building. They reopened for the 2026-27 school year.
"We go through this process of evaluating space and finding alternative routes to maximize space, to create cost savings," he said.
He said the facility assessment is 100% risk-free, meaning that there is no financial obligation to the district when deciding who to contract with after the study is completed.
Following Richards' presentation, Tyrone Area School District board member Gunter Volders asked if TEN will cut corners to bring down the renovation price.
Richards said that they won't overdesign, they will be the only bidder and that they won't include large profit margins in the total amount.
"When you add all those things up, you can still deliver a really solid project but with substantially less money," he said.
After the meeting, Executive Director Nicole Zernick said they do not have any financial numbers concerning facility improvements.
"It's having the TEN group look at our prior feasibility study and see how it can be improved, but also looking at what our needs for current and future students are, and how we can move forward with that financially," she said.
She said Richards will have another presentation available at the December meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Dec. 3 at the reorganization meeting
In other news, the Joint Operating Committee approved adding a mental health service for post-secondary students through a selected third-party vendor funded through the Perkins Postsecondary Grant.
The mental health service will be available to students from Oct. 1 to June 30, 2027.
According to Zernick, the district has never had a mental health service for its post-secondary students. Secondary students can access mental health services through the IU8.
"Making sure that we're providing services to the students, not just the skill services but services that can allow them to stay in school and manage any issues or concerns they have," she said.
Mirror Staff Writer Colette Costlow is at 814-946-7414.