Northeastern ready to start first phase of potential $100 million high school renovation

Northeastern High School is about to take a big leap from the 1950s right into the 21st Century.

Phase 1 of a three-part renovation project that is estimated to cost close to $100 million will begin in earnest on June 8, according to high school principal Matt Gay. The school board approved the first phase and accepted bids at a recent meeting.

Lobar, Inc. will handle the bulk of the first phase, winning the general construction and electrical contracts for a total of just over $21 million. Frey-Lutz Corp. won the HVAC contract for $5.2 million, Jay R. Reynolds won the plumbing contract for just under $1.6 million, and SA Comunale won the fire protection contract for $342,195.

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The total cost for the first phase of the project is just over $28 million.

A combination of cash and a bond issue will be used to cover the cost, said Brian Geller, the district’s director of operations. The school board will vote on the amount of each at its March 15 meeting. 

And while the board hasn’t yet voted on it, Geller said there will need to be a tax increase.

“Right now it’s a .22 mill increase (in the next budget),” he said. “In order to finance this project, the school board increased taxes .16 mills two years ago and .22 mills one year ago. They have slowly phased in the millage to pay for the construction.”

Northeastern has the second-highest millage rate in York County at 26.47 mills, trailing only York City Schools at 35.13 based on 2021 millage rates. If the .22 mill increase goes through, $90 of the $4,000 property tax for a house assessed at $150,000 will go toward the high school renovations.   

Geller and Gay said this project has been years in the making. Officials looked at a new build vs. two types of renovations before deciding this three-phase project was the best way to go. The other renovation plan added a second floor to the existing building, which opened in 1956.

The biggest obstacle against a new building was land. A new high school wouldn’t fit on the current property, so the district would have had to purchase a plot of land.

“The board has been planning this for years,” Geller said. “The district has put aside more than $10 million for the project.”

Gay said although there will be some site work done before June 8, the real work won’t begin until the day after the teachers are finished for the school year.

“They are going to start with two academic hallways, one is science/social studies and the other is math,” Gay said. “And they will be constructing a different cafeteria in the center of the building.”

The principal said the project will be about 10 percent demolition and 10 percent new construction, and the rest will be renovating existing space. Because the current high school is a combination of two buildings, the footprint is huge.

“We are trying to be good stewards of the building, so the effort is to repurpose it,” Gay said.

Approximately 30 classrooms will undergo renovations, including focused lighting with dimmer switches. Science rooms will be enlarged and the plumbing improved.

Five external classrooms will be used while the building's six science rooms are renovated. They are specifically for teaching science, so they are larger and are equipped differently than regular modular classrooms.

Contractors will install sub levels to house the school’s new HVAC system that will replace the two systems that now heat and cool the high school.

“When I first came here, they told me how to use the new school,” Gay said. “It’s two separate operating systems, two boiler rooms. It’s really two buildings fused together, the original high school and the old middle school.”

The high school is the last of the district’s eight schools to be renovated or replaced.

And while most of the project focuses on the building, there is another key piece to the first phase that sits outside the high school walls. The stadium is finally going to get locker room facilities.

“There’s no field house,” Gay said. “The home team goes out the east end of the stadium, climbs a hill and goes to an open garage to gather. The visiting team goes into an old cafeteria in the annex or stays on the field.”

Right now, there is no room for officials to change or congregate, so an officials room will be built.

The locker facilities won’t just be in use for football games. Gay said they will be available for anyone using the stadium.

Work is expected to be completed on the first phase in August, 2022. The plan is to wait at least one year before starting the second phase.

Gay said the main reason for this is so it can be funded as a separate project instead of tying into the first phase.

“And a different board could say no, and not do the rest of it,” Gay said. “This project will solve some of the most immediate needs. We had to get the mechanicals piece done before we could do anything else.”

Shelly Stallsmith is a trends reporter for the York Daily Record. She can be reached at mstallsmith@ydr.com or followed on Twitter at @ShelStallsmith.