FOUNTAIN SPRINGS - The North Schuylkill school board approved an agreement Wednesday with a New Holland company to do site exploration for more classrooms at the elementary school.
The board unanimously voted to enter an agreement with Geotechnical Engineering Solutions LLC to conduct the study, which will cost $3,990, according to district Superintendent Andrew D. Smarkanic.
"We're looking to put four classrooms on and a storage room to alleviate some of the overcrowding in that building," Smarkanic said. "That's going to be in conjunction with the renovation of this building."
The school district plans a multi-million dollar upgrade to the high school building, constructed in 1975 with changes in 1986. The nearly 38-year-old building needs major upgrading and improvements in mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems. A feasibility study in 2010 outlined the needed improvements. It suggested adding a middle school building, but that has been tabled.
"We were initially looking at putting a middle school on, but that's no longer part of the plan," Smarkanic said. "So we're going to put on four classrooms - two on the first level and two on the second level. We have overcrowding issues that we have to address."
The feasibility study conducted by Lewis and Associates Architects in 2010 had three options, one of which included adding a middle school, each of which was estimated to cost more than $30 million at that time.
Geotechnical Engineering intends to learn what the land conditions are to expand the existing building.
"We have to find where the virgin ground is," Smarkanic said. This will involve core borings to see what is underground.
"This will be done so our architect has a better idea when they develop a plan of how deep to go down," Smarkanic said. "From our understanding, the building was put on some fill, so we need to find where the virgin ground is at, so our engineers can draw up the specs for the project."
No time was announced when the site exploration work would begin.