At the March 22 virtual Whitehall-Coplay School Board committee meetings on education/student activities, operations/transportation and finance/personnel, James Hanna, with D’Huy Engineering Inc., presented a proposed campus project list for the upcoming summer.

Projects include a curtain wall replacement at Steckel Elementary School, at a cost of $195,000; an access road repair, at a cost of $63,000; and elevator repairs at Steckel Elementary and Whitehall-Coplay Middle School, at a cost of $90,000 each. The total cost of the proposed work is $438,000.

According to Hanna, to repair the curtain wall at the entrance of Steckel, the curtain wall and storefront will need to be removed and replaced, new doors will have to be installed, existing hardware on the new doors will have to be reset, access control and CCTV devices will need to be reinstalled and alternates to install a secure vestibule and canopy roofs over the doors will be included.

Hanna also discussed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers’ guidelines for the reopening of schools in regard to the condition of the HVAC systems at WCSD.

Recommendations addressed ventilation, filtration and air cleaning. Hanna spoke about the use of MERV 13 filters and bipolar ionization in order to reduce the spread of viruses.

MERV 13 filters are one option, though not all HVAC units can handle the additional pressure drop they cause. MERV stands for minimum efficiency reporting value and is a rating system for filters. Higher MERV ratings equal more efficiency at trapping certain types of particles.

Another option is the use of bipolar ionization, which creates positive and negative oxygen ions that attach to and neutralize viruses. These compact units can be installed on the inside of existing HVAC equipment and ductwork easily. According to Hanna, the budget needed for bipolar ionization is $250,000, and grant funds can be used.

WCSD has received grant money in response to the pandemic, including $17,300 from the Continuity of Education Equity Grant, which the district used to buy Chromebooks for the current academic year.

The $289,341 Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency grant was spent on new Chromebooks for sixth and ninth grades, along with Chromebook carry sleeves. The $137,941 PCCD II grant, minus $5,420 that was required to be shared with St. Elizabeth Regional School in Fullerton, will be spent on new Chromebooks for sixth-graders for the 2021-22 school year.

The $23,424 Special Education COVID-19 Mitigation Grant helped pay salaries of special education support teachers for students in the learn-at-home program and covered the purchase of resources for their instruction.

The $123,192 from the Continuity of Education Grant for TSI Schools will be used to buy Chromebooks for ninth-graders for the 2021-22 school year. The $814,494 Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Fund, minus $32,001 for St. Elizabeth, was spent on software, hot spots, Chromebooks, teachers’ laptops, webcams and doc cams, summer school and after-school tutoring, salaries for virtual learning staff, PPE and health and safety supplies.

The $3,600,178 Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Fund II, which has not been released yet, will be used to pay salaries for unfilled elementary and secondary teacher positions, updating technology and new buses.

The next school board meeting will be 7 p.m. April 12.