State College Area School District will spend $19,625 for the first phase of restoration work to repair damage from water infiltration at Mount Nittany Middle School.
The school board unanimously approved a proposal from Allegheny Restoration for the work during its meeting on Monday night.
According to a memo from Mike Fisher, director of physical plant, “the building is experiencing water infiltration through failed window glazing, mortar joints, and displaced brick masonry units.” That has resulted in humidity issues inside the building and numerous interior wall repairs.
Allegheny Restoration will remediate a small portion of the facade over the winter and if found to be suitable for long-term stabilization, the district will initiate a second phase of work covering a much larger portion of the building.
Fisher said he would have a better sense of the phase 2 cost after evaluating the results of the first phase and determining the scope of work for the second.
“Because it’s a small portion, there’s still going to be some fixed costs …” Randy Brown, finance and operations officer said. “So hopefully we’ll build economies of scale as we do larger sections.”
Brown added that the district wasn’t anticipating needing to do the work but has been planning for incremental renovations at Mount Nittany Middle School, which is now 25-years old. In 2019, the district spent $2 million on a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system for the school.
“Quite honestly it’s not something that was on our radar for this point in time,” Brown said of the restoration work. “However, Mount Nittany Middle School is on our radar for making sure … that we keep that building up and not need a wholesale renovation in the next five to 10 years; that we want to be inputting some investments in there just like we did with the HVAC and different parts of the building.”
In response to a question from board member Laurel Zydney, Fisher said the infiltration problem was not normal wear-and-tear for a building of the Mount Nittany Middle School’s age.
“This is not ordinary,” Fisher said. “There is some upkeep needed with any brick building, repointing, caulking, however what we’re seeing at Mount Nittany Middle is more extreme than that as far as infiltration and moisture infiltrating the walls and not draining properly. This is not normal.”
In August 2018, Mount Nittany was one of three district schools that had to undergo cleanup and air quality testing after a summer of heavy rain caused moisture inside the buildings and combined with insufficient airflow to develop mold inside the buildings.
Fisher said staff have gone above ceilings and behind walls to verify that “nothing hazardous” has developed as a result of the water infiltration.
Noise during the restoration work is expected to be minimal.
“There are a few bricks that actually need to be replaced or reset, so there might be a little bit of noise there,” Fisher said. “As far as the recaulking, the sealing, it should be very minimal.”
Board President Amber Concepcion requested that the second phase of work be performed during the summer “to the extent possible.
