Altoona Area School District to study water system cost at Juniata Gap Elementary

District hires EADS for Juniata Gap study, plans for lab upgrade

The Altoona Area School District entered into two agreements with the EADS Group on Monday to compare costs for its water treatment system and to prepare conceptual floor plans for a potential upgrade to the high school's A building science labs.

The only property in the district that has a well system is Juniata Gap Elementary School, and after finding out a lot of the materials used for water purification are no longer available, Altoona Area is faced with the choice of either redoing their well system with more modern equipment or transition to extending a city waterline to the school site, Superintendent Brad Hatch said.

"We have bought up all of the available supplies to get us (through) as long as we can," Hatch said, noting the current equipment was likely installed in the early 1990s.

The first agreement with EADS Group is to complete a feasibility study on the Juniata Gap water system. The total cost is not to exceed $7,400, and it will be paid from the district's general fund budget, according to the agenda for Monday's school board meeting.

Hatch said there's pros and cons of both options. But district officials want to get the feasibility study and engineering done now before moving forward with either continuing the well system or a potential city water transition, he said.

The decision will likely be made next year, Hatch said, adding officials need to complete a water quality testing before taking any action.

To do that, the board added a resolution to Monday's agenda by a majority vote to accept a professional services agreement with Arpo Consulting to perform a groundwater sampling and laboratory analysis of the school's water supply well.

The total costs -- not to exceed $4,320 -- will be paid for from the district's general fund budget, board president Val Mignogna said. The motion passed unanimously with all members present, except board Vice President Kelly Irwin Adams.

The district's other agreement with EADS Group is to prepare conceptual floor plans, layout and an option of construction and engineering costs to upgrade the high school's A building science labs at a cost not to exceed $9,900, which will also be paid from the general fund budget.

Hatch said all of the building's chemistry, physics and biology classrooms are "in dire need of renovation."

When the district renovated its A building in 2018, Hatch said those classrooms received "cosmetic cleanups," but the needed repairs ultimately "did not make the cut" from the project.

Those classrooms are "all original" from the 1970s, Hatch said.

By approving the EADS Group agreement, district officials are essentially trying to preplan for the next cycle of available state grants that might help support and fund the renovation, Hatch said.

"If we are in a position to apply for a state facilities grant, we want to be able to have an adequate feasibility study of that and estimates to be able to submit that with our application," Hatch said.

During public comment, educational support professional Cathy Burkett read a letter written by an unnamed teacher in support of the Altoona Area Education Support Professionals of Pennsylvania, which is still actively in negotiations with the district to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

Burkett was joined by a group of other educational support professionals, but she was the only member who addressed the board directly.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.