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The Pennsbury School Board voted Thursday to award a contract for a new high school to Hatfield-based construction firm KCBA for $8,852,500.
The total project budget is $250 million, down from the $300 million that prompted the referendum under Act 34.
Six board members voted in favor of the contract, two voted against it and newcomer Donna Abrecia abstained. Vice Presidents Joshua Waldorf and Lois Lambing voted against it, choosing instead another contender, Crabtree, who bid $160 more Ten thousand U.S. dollars.
“You get what you pay for,” Waldorf said.
“We elected two of the best, most experienced people,” said board member and state Rep. Jim Prokopiak (D-Levittown). “At the end of the day, we’re talking about a lot of money. We’re talking seven figures. Why would we pay so much for one of these? I don’t see how such a huge cost difference is going to help us.”
The three-story school on Hood Boulevard in Falls Township will be completed in 2029 and serve 2,800 to 3,000 students. Mike Kelly of the KCBA said the school will have a central entrance and three wings along a central corridor for safety reasons. One end includes the administration and media center (formerly the library), which will house academic classrooms and laboratories, and the third end will include a gym, cafeteria, and swimming pool.
Parent and frequent board critic Tim Daly discovered that a request for proposal (RFP) form sent out by the district had a name tag listing information from the Brandywine Heights School District to KCBA. KCBA was awarded the contract with Brandywine Heights High School.
“Despite repeated demands for transparency, Pennsbury withheld the RFP documents for weeks,” Daley said. “Pennsbury even delayed the RTK response so they wouldn’t have to hand over the information until after the vote. Metadata associated with the RFP document uploaded to Pennsbury Board Docs indicates that the document is from another school district in which the winner of the RFP is construction engineers, as well as the construction management department handling the project. Considering the construction price tag of this project is $250 million, Pennsbury administration and school board members should provide the community with answers on how they will obtain the RFP template.”
Superintendent Thomas Smith, Ed.D., did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
KCBA is also the construction company responsible for the expansion and renovation of Boehm Secondary School in Lower Makefield. The district has budgeted $30 million for the effort in 2022. Actual costs have reached $42.2 million, according to D’Huy Engineering’s James Lynch at a March 7 facilities committee meeting.
Another resident, Robert Abrams, said in an email to the board obtained by DVJournal, “This is abundantly clear as Crabtree has stated the need for a referendum at every meeting. nature, which I’m sure is consistent with their wealth of experience and professionalism, and their willingness to negotiate a fixed fee that neither D’Huy nor KCBA has, I see the possibility that D’Huy and KCBA will deliberately join forces to keep the total cost down to To disenfranchise communities, they will charge extra fees by increasing the cost of the project on the back of the project.”
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