Phoenixville Library Presents Preliminary Renovation Plan to School Board

Thursday night's Phoenixville Area School Board workshop meeting saw good news from the and discussion on several items.

Susan Mostek, the library foundation's executive director, announced to the board that the library has raised all of the money needed to start the renovations to the library building. The library had to raise in order to do the $1 million in planned interior renovations.

The renovations include additional computers, a larger children's section with its own circulation desk, more computers in the upstairs computer lab, and a standalone young adult section with a reading area.

Thomas Carnevale of Carnevale Eustis Architects also explained that the project should take three months to finish and will probably begin in the spring.

During the finance committee report, board member Joshua Gould spoke about the ongoing project to have a group of investors buy the solar power equipment on the high school's roof. The project would result in a monetary savings to the district and the investors gain tax credits to which the school district would not have access.

Gould said there have been two options on the table for some time, but a third option recently became available. The investors would purchase the equipment for a payment of $500,000, and the electricity produced by the panels would be provided to the district at no cost.

District executive director Stan Johnson said that the district would see a net positive cash flow in the amount of $704,000 if this new option was implemented.

The panels are expected to be active this weekend. Final connections are being done on Saturday and then the panels will be turned on. 

The board is expected to make a final decision on a solar investor at next week's board meeting.

Finally, the board also discussed the 2012-2013 school calendar. Superintendent Dr. Alan Fegley said that 2013 Spring Break will be March 25 to 29 and April 1. School will start on Aug. 27, 2012 and graduation will be on June 5, 2013.

One change to the 2012-2013 calendar is the use of possible snow days. In the past, any days that needed to be made up (beyond the three days built into the calendar already) were "tacked on to the end of the year," Fegley said.

"If we have more than three days to make up, then we will use March 25 and 26 and April 1," Fegley said.

It will be the first time the district will plan on taking days out of the spring break week if necessary.

The board meets for its business meeting next Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. in the district's administration building.