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RADNOR – Plans for the new Ithan Elementary School are moving forward.
Randor’s school board is expected to vote on whether to authorize its consultants to move forward with the design phase of the new school building at its next board business meeting.
During meetings in late September and a special board meeting this past week, district officials and its consultants outlined some of their work to date.
“Our intention is to come to the board in October with a recommendation to accept the schematic design phase,” William Dolan, director of operations for the district, said during the Sept. 26 board meeting. “We’re not here tonight necessarily to go through the windows, the roofing materials, what color is the brick, what’s the furniture going to look like inside, although you’ll get a little glimpse into some of the possibilities there, so again, this is informational to give you a chance to get caught up on where we are in the project and gives us a month to hear your questions and make sure that we are bringing to the board a concise and complete package in the schematic phase.”
The recent meetings followed a feasibility study that was done a couple of years ago that determined Ithan needed to be rebuilt. After the new building is constructed on the same site, the old school will be demolished.
Under the district’s current plans, during an upcoming board business meeting, they are expected to authorize Breslin Architects to proceed to the design development phase for the new school building. There will also be an estimated schedule and construction budget presented.
During this past summer, the district was doing its due diligence work with its civil engineering, with engineers surveying the grading to include every curve and hill on the property.
“We’ve been looking at existing utilities on the property,” Dolan said. “We’ve done environmental due diligence so that we know – is there an old oil tank somewhere, and how is that being treated. Is it captured in the plans before we develop them too far. Where is the geothermal system – things like that. We’ve also surveyed all the trees on the property. So a lot of that work has gone on through the schematic design phase, and it will continue into the next phase.”
During the meeting this past week, Tronya Boylan, principal at Ithan Elementary, commented on the school’s need for additional conference room space.
“We’re building a school that could hold 750 children, so it’s reasonable to think that on any given morning at 8:25, we could have more than one [Individualized Education Program] or parent meeting happening at the same time,” Boylan said. “We could have a small staff meeting happening at the same time, so this means we don’t have to try to squish 12 people in a room that’s meant for six; that we could invite parents into a space that was big enough that if they brought someone with them if we had numerous counselors support staff to attend the meeting. We would have space where everyone could comfortably fit. So that’s why the need for the additional conference rooms.”
According to Boylan, sometimes students must take tests in small groups and have to go to the one conference room in the main office. She said it’s not very quiet for a child to take a math test.
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