BELLEFONTE — At this week’s Bellefonte School Board meeting, the board approved an Initial Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement (GESA) with Reynolds Energy Services, Inc., doing business as SitelogIQ Energy Services, Inc.

The agreement, which shall not exceed $796,318, covers the design and early procurement of rooftop HVAC units for necessary planned upgrades to the mechanical and electrical systems at Pleasant Gap Elementary School.

“Pleasant Gap’s needs are no surprise,” said School Board President Jon Guizar. “We had mentioned all along that whatever money we had left — we figured four or five million dollars, maybe six — that we could put it into the remaining elementary schools to bring some equity to our program.”

According to Guizar, in 2020, HVAC and electrical upgrades at Pleasant Gap were identified as “the biggest need in our elementary schools outside of Bellefonte Elementary.”

He attested that the school relies on space heaters for warmth, and at times, inadequate heating forces students to leave their classrooms because it’s too cold to learn, even with a coat on.

“This board has an obligation to maintain our facilities and that one is just too far gone,” Guizar said, noting that the board is addressing the issue now so it can be resolved over the summer for the upcoming school year.

“We wanted to have that project completed this summer for minimal impact to the delivery of education,” he said.

Director of Fiscal Affairs for BASD Ken Bean agreed, adding, “It would not be feasible at all to do this project with students in the building.”

Bean also mentioned that the timing of the agreement coincides with planned bond issuances that could help finance the project.

SitelogIQ estimates design and development for the project will cost $144,250 and equipment an additional $652,068, bringing the total for the design, build and installation of the project to $796,318.

The firm projects annual operational savings of $950 related to maintenance and utility use, though additional energy savings are not included in that figure.

“We’re still achieving energy savings on top of taking the hit that’s needed for energy use to bring the building into much better condition,” said Sphar, who added SitelogIQ guarantees Bellefonte at least $2,000 a year in savings.

“There’s utility incentives that we will be going after. They’re not calculated in that savings. We will get whatever utility incentives are available for your project through your utility company,” he said. “It is saving you money, but it is not saving a lot of money”

In February, 90 percent of the cost, or $716,686, will be billed, with the final 10 percent, or $79,632, due in March.

A few board members, however, questioned whether the agreement with SitelogIQ was the most fiscally responsible choice and if alternatives had been thoroughly explored.

“I looked through the timeline because there were some concerns at our last meeting about feeling rushed,” Guizar said.

According to the board president, efforts to improve Pleasant Gap began in 2020 when the district conducted a validation program to ensure that both the new and existing schools were appropriately sized, aligned with program needs and met Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) requirements.

On May 21, 2024, the board passed a resolution to request grant funding for the project, and on July 15, it issued a request for a Guaranteed Energy Savings Agreement (GESA) partner. SitelogIQ, Johnson Controls and Brewer-Garrett were among the firms considered.

“The district met and had those conversations and brought forth their recommendation of SiteLogIQ to do that work,” said Guizar, noting that the board unanimously approved the selection. Notably, Bellefonte’s former superintendent, Tammy Burnaford, who retired last summer, accepted a consulting role with SiteLogIQ after her departure.

The board did not receive the grant funding it had applied for to finance the project, so “It was put on hold temporarily, because we didn’t want to spend money on that building if we were going to close it right away,” he added.

With the Section 7-780 public hearing process for the closure of Benner and Bellefonte elementary schools now complete, the board shifted its focus to Pleasant Gap as part of its goal to bring equity to the elementary school program.

“We promised our community that whatever school remained, we were allocating about $5 million to try to bring some equity to that remaining building. We’re going to have a brand new building, with beautiful views, beautiful classrooms and all these resources, and then imagine how the people would feel going to a school where they’re still trying to gather around a space heater while trying to have class,” said the board president.

Board members Timothy Kessling and Patrick Buck, who voted against approval of the guaranteed energy savings contract alongside Jack Bechdel, both expressed their concern that spending money on Pleasant Gap when the district has not determined their long-term plan for their facilities is shortsighted.

“Maybe there’s something different that we can do to short-term address the HVAC challenges at the school until we firmly understand what our long-term path is,” said Buck. “If it’s a million dollars of sunk cost to kind of carry us through for five years, at least we know what we’re paying for.”

He noted that Benner Elementary was in a similar condition to Pleasant Gap, which led the district to move forward with its closure. “So it is very interesting to me that there’s kind of a very different outlook,” he said, emphasizing that investing extensively in a building that could soon be decommissioned would be a sunk cost.

Guizar rebutted that the decision to keep Pleasant Gap over Benner Elementary was based on the school’s better location, larger property and more options for future development.

“This has been designed to be completely flexible so you don’t have sunk costs,” said Damion Sphar, director of client experience at SitelogIQ, who explained that any sunk costs would come from completely demolishing the structure.

Kessling said he shared Buck’s concerns, asking, “Are we throwing money at a money pit?”

He says his own calculations revealed that an addition to the new elementary school would be less expensive than the planned investments in Pleasant Gap, then echoing Buck’s suggestion to impose a stop gap measure to bring the facility to an acceptable standard so that they can “plan accordingly and do something more reasonable long-term.”

Backing Guizar, who expressed his feeling that “the district has kicked the can down the road too long,” Spahr shared that in his experience, stopgap spending to fix pressing issues of this nature has proven untenable in other districts.

Both Kessling and Buck voiced concerns, suggesting that not all options had been considered and proposing alternatives such as consolidating all the elementary schools and expanding the new Bellefonte Elementary.

Guizar responded by explaining that every possibility had been explored, pointing to the 2016 feasibility study conducted by Crabtree Rohrbaugh & Associates and the 2021 Hunt study, which provided building project options. He emphasized that the district is now working from decisions made by previous boards, which had determined the current path as the best course of action.

He also pointed out that starting over with new designs, closures and construction would take three to five years. In the meantime, the district still needs to address HVAC issues whether they eventually decide to sell the building or keep it to house students until a new facility is ready.

“Should the need arise to where we have to look at districting because we have some concentrated developments in a particular area, we have the ability to add on to Pleasant Gap easily without interrupting existing students,” said Guizar. “We have the ability to add onto the new building, but these are all long term things… You don’t just say, let’s add onto that and then six months later you’re in construction. They’re multi-year adventures.”

“This is an extremely challenging decision for me; I have kids that go to Pleasant Gap, so I want upgrades for these kids in the worst way… but I question if this is fiscally the right decision,” said Kessling, who said he believes design permits and school closures could be fast-tracked and completed in 1 to 2 years.

“I think it’s a highly compressed schedule, and I have quality control concerns. I feel there are better options,” Kessling continued, stating that he believes the resolution should have been tabled to explore other possibilities.

The motion passed five to three.