FRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) — After a lengthy discussion on Monday night, the Franklin Area School Board approved a $672,000 renovation project at the junior/senior high school that will make room for the administration office for the district.

Members voted 6 to 2 to spend the money, which will convert the hallway beside the auditorium at the high school into offices.

Currently, the administration offices are located at 702 Liberty Street in the former elementary school. The board recently voted to sell the building to Child Development Centers for $300,000.

Two other options for the administration offices were presented to the board last month. One plan was to convert the back hallway at the junior/senior high school to house the administration offices. This option would have been $940,000.

The other option, which wasn’t discussed during the meeting, was to spend $1.1 million on constructing a new building to house the offices.

Board member Eric Leccia asked if they had looked at other options such as renovating an older home in downtown Franklin.

Engineer Vincent Ordinario from HHSDR Engineers explained that due to ADA standards the cost to renovate a house downtown would be expendential.

Other options were looked at by the school board and included renting a space over 10 years at a cost of $60,000 a year.

“We were talking about spending $600,000 on rent out of the general fund,” Brian Spaid said. “We’ll be able to use capital funds for this project.”

Spaid is the school board president.

Voting in favor of the project were Marcia Patton, Major Smith, Cheryl Ferry, Tracey Leyda, Misty Nalepa, and Spaid. Sabrina Backer and Erin Leccia voted against the project. Ronald Richburg was not present during the meeting.
Ordinario said the project would begin on June 4, the last day of school for students, and has a tentative completion date of Sept. 28, 2018.