With the fate of Stewart Elementary sealed, Burrell School District is directing its attention to improvements at Bon Air Elementary and Burrell High School.

The school board on Tuesday will consider advertising for a boiler replacement at the high school and a boiler rebuild at Bon Air.

“These are two of the things that we’ve talked about doing, and the architect recommends that we go ahead and get started by advertising for bids on the two boilers,” Superintendent Shannon Wagner said.

The boilers at the high school are from 1964 — the same year the building opened. Bon Air’s boilers were installed in 1997.

District officials in September requested specifications from their architect, HHSDR Inc. of Pittsburgh, for construction projects at three of the district’s schools.

Wagner said advertising for the boilers would enable the district to begin to get estimates. The board would then consider awarding bids for the projects in January, she said.

Should the board choose to move forward, both boiler projects could be completed by the summer.

Burrell had applied for a $5 million state grant to help pay for HVAC work at the high school but was unsuccessful in getting that award, said Jennifer Callahan, the district’s business manager.

“Unfortunately, our district was not selected to receive any of these grant funds,” Callahan said. “Therefore, the district will have to use additional bond proceeds to cover costs of projects, or we will have to adjust some of the plans to exclude or postpone certain parts of the improvements needed.”

The board previously approved taking out a $10 million bond to pay for construction projects in the district.

“The idea is then for us to have another $10 million bond so that we can do these projects,” Wagner said. “So, the architect is suggesting that we start with replacing the boiler at the high school, which we all know needs done, (and) rebuilding the boiler at Bon Air.”

The district will start to see renditions for the cafeteria and kitchen upgrades at Bon Air in the spring, she said. That project is needed because of the closure of Stewart Elementary, and some of those students will be attending Bon Air beginning next school year.

The school district in October voted to close the nearly 100-year old Stewart building citing declining enrollment, costly infrastructure improvements and the opportunity for district personnel to focus its resources on three buildings instead of four.

At the same time, the district will get specifications for HVAC improvements at Bon Air and Burrell High School, with the board considering advertising for those projects also in the spring.

The HVAC at Burrell High School also was installed in 1964. Bon Air’s HVAC system was installed in 1997. None of the district’s buildings have air conditioning.

If the board moves forward with the kitchen and cafeteria additions, and HVAC, at Bon Air, it anticipates a bid would be awarded in June 2025 with construction being completed by August 2026.

“It’s a full-year project where we would still use the building … so it would be a phasing,” Wagner said.

For the high school’s HVAC project, if the board chooses to pursue that route, the district could award that contract next summer with construction completed by the following summer.

Wagner said it’s still the beginning for construction projects in the district.

“This is just the opening dance,” she said.