Chambersburg Area SD presents $300M facilities plan, recommends proceeding to bids while monitoring funding risk

Chambersburg Area SD officials told the board on June 2 that a multi-campus program of new construction and consolidation carries mid-range costs of roughly $300 million and will require careful financing and risk management.

Presenters Chris Bigger and Mrs. Stauffer framed the plan as the culmination of a 2½-year effort to align facilities and programming. "We have a recommendation and we are not 100% tied to it," Bigger told the board, urging members to use the recommendation as a starting point for refinement. Staff said the analysis reduces the district from 17 buildings toward 13 and proposes a K–3, 4–6, 7–8, single-high-school grade configuration to create a single "Trojan community."

Mrs. Stauffer reviewed recent state "adequacy" funding that materially changed the district’s options: Chambersburg received about $5 million in 2024–25, another $5 million in 2025–26, and was promised an additional ~$5 million in 2026–27 — roughly $15 million more than the 2023–24 baseline. Staff warned, however, that the state’s structural deficit makes future adequacy funding uncertain and that the district cannot rely on continued high levels of state support.

Mid-range construction estimates presented to the board listed the middle school at about $124 million, the intermediate at about $139 million, and the Greenville campus at about $37 million. Staff said financing two or three projects would put the district’s annual debt-service obligations in the $31–32 million range; current debt service is roughly $13.7 million. The administration has been "super funding" a debt-service fund and plans a recurring $22.6 million debt-service line in the 2026–27 budget to help bridge the gap.

Presenters described two "risk windows": a near-term four-year window driven by health-care costs, special-education expenses, enrollment trends and local economic conditions; and a longer 10–12-year window tied to other capital needs the district must maintain. Staff recommended proceeding to bid on the Green Village project in January and the middle school in March while actively monitoring bids, local economic indicators and the state budget; the target earliest occupancy date for projects in the current schedule is fall 2029.

Board members extensively debated logistics and timing. Some favored a simultaneous, "rip the band-aid off" approach to capture cost and educational benefits; others urged staggered starts or phased occupancy to reduce mid-year moves, ease transportation and relieve facilities staff. Facilities staff described phasing constraints (site fill, demolition, summer windows) and said some components (for example, smaller elementary buildings) may become available before larger components.

Presenters said contingency options include using cash to reduce full borrowings, staging bids to sharpen contractor pricing, planning detailed redistricting and transportation changes, and retaining flexibility to approve or delay specific projects when final bid results are available.

The board did not take a final vote on borrowing or staging at the meeting; members signaled support to proceed with the bid schedule and asked staff to continue monitoring risks and to return with bid results and updated financial scenarios before final approvals.