Plum School Board advances $30M building project at O'Block Elementary, middle school

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that board member Michelle Stepnick’s vote was officially recorded as “yes,” although she said before and after the vote that her intent was to vote “no.”

The Plum School Board is taking a next step toward a $30 million building project targeting O’Block Elementary and the district’s middle school.

The board on June 18 accepted a proposal from HDG Architects of Pittsburgh for design and engineering services for the schematic design phase at the two schools, with a majority of the money being spent at O’Block.

The firm’s fee for the schematic design phase is $242,800, including $179,600 for O’Block and $63,200 for the middle school.

While board member Michelle Stepnick said she would vote against it, the district’s record reflects her having voted in favor. Stepnick participated in the meeting remotely and says her “no” vote was not heard. She said she would seek to correct the record at the next board meeting.

Stepnick said she could not support the proposal because the district has too long delayed addressing the middle school and the board has not considered redistricting to address capacity concerns at O’Block.

The longest serving member of the school board, Stepnick said the middle school had been the next building the district was to address through renovations or replacement.

“The middle school is the can every board keeps kicking,” she said. “I’m not comfortable kicking that middle school can even further.”

If space is available at the district’s other K-4 school, Pivik, then redistricting is something the board should talk about before spending millions on O’Block, Stepnick said.

“I don’t like the topic. It’s a very awful topic to have to bring up,” she said.

“We owe it to the taxpayers to at least have that conversation if there’s a cost savings that’s really significant. If not, I don’t want to do that.”

Superintendent Rick Walsh said administrators are not recommending redistricting, and it has not been discussed.

Renovating O’Block to improve its learning environment and increase its capacity while upgrading infrastructure at the middle school “is the best long-range solution moving forward for our community,” he said.

The work being considered could resolve the district’s capacity issues for the next 10 to 20 years, Walsh said.

“The closing of Regency and moving to two elementaries has forced capacity concerns in our two K-4 buildings. We don’t have that extra building now. That is part of the challenge,” he said. “To go and do a middle school renovation would far exceed the $30 million that was recommended that is a comfortable spot for this district to move forward.”

A study found renovating the middle school would cost more than $40 million, board member Mark Stropkaj said. Instead, he said, the board needs to think in the next several years about possibly building a new middle school.

“We need to start planning that now and not 10 years from now,” he said. “But we do need to move forward because there is a need on the elementary school level.”

Board President Angela Anderson said while there are HVAC and ventilation concerns at the middle school that need to be addressed, some of the district’s most vulnerable students are at O’Block.

“We need to make sure that that building is up to par and meets the standards for the education that those students need to receive,” she said.

While staying within $30 million, Walsh said, efforts have been made to free up money for work at the middle school.

With the results of a demographic study, an addition to O’Block has been reduced from eight classrooms to six, he said. Changing how the school’s open house is held has eliminated the need for excavation to create 50 more parking spaces, saving more than $1 million.

Walsh said they want to keep the O’Block project closer to $25 million so they can take a closer look at the middle school.

“What needs to be addressed at the middle school is our ventilation, our plumbing and some of the envelope of the building — the windows, the doors,” he said.

To help offset the cost, the district is seeking $4.3 million in grants for work on the roof at the high school, Walsh said. It’s also looking at up to $5 million to offset construction costs so work at the middle school can be expanded to look at HVAC and windows and doors because of security and accessibility.

“We believe that this recommendation will address what we heard from this board in regards to the infrastructure at the middle school and the capacity at O’Block,” Walsh said.

In the 2025-26 school year, the district would discuss offering a full-day kindergarten program, he said.

According to HDG’s proposal, the schematic design phase for O’Block and the middle school will take three months to complete, from mid-July to October.

After seeking bids and the award of contracts, the firm’s tentative schedule shows construction starting at the middle school first, in May 2025, followed by the start of work on the addition at O’Block in October 2025. Work on alterations and renovations to O’Block would start in June 2026.

Work at the middle school would be finished in October 2026. O’Block would not be done until July or August 2027.