BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 Bethlehem Area School District will pay for an investigation of cracks that have developed in the floors and walls at Nitschmann Middle School, which was built in 2017. <\/p>\n
It was revealed at a School Board committee meeting Monday that the board on Jan. 26 will vote on a cost-sharing agreement among the project architect, prime contractor and project manager for the investigation.<\/p>\n
It will look into the \u201csettlement issue\u201d with the middle school building, which cost $53.1 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing observed or evaluated is of a structural nature that impacts the safety…”<\/p>\n
Bethlehem Area School Board Agenda Item <\/p>\n
\u201cNothing observed or evaluated is of a structural nature that impacts the safety of the building, but cracks have developed enough to warrant repairs,\u201d the school board agenda item states.<\/p>\n
The investigation would include a laser survey of the building to be conducted three times over the next year. Those findings would be used to develop repair solutions.<\/p>\n
The cost of the investigation is $37,500, which would be split and paid equally by BASD, D’Huy Engineering, Breslin Architects and Penn Builders.<\/p>\n
Fountain Hill Elementary update<\/p>\n
Also Monday, the school board received a presentation from PFM Financial Advisors LLC to review the district\u2019s three-phase financial plan for constructing a new Fountain Hill Elementary School.<\/p>\n
The $52.9 million school building is slated to open for the 2027-28 academic year at 1330 Church St., the site of the former Fountain Hill Elementary, which the district demolished.<\/p>\n
Last January, BASD borrowed $25 million in bonds for the project, and in February, the district will borrow $20 million more.<\/p>\n
In January 2027, the district anticipates borrowing $7.9 million for the Fountain Hill project.<\/p>\n
During construction of the project, Fountain Hill students are learning at a temporary facility at the former home of Lehigh Valley Academy on Center Valley Parkway in Hanover Township, Northampton County.<\/p>\n
Clean audit report<\/p>\n
In other business, the district received a clean financial audit for fiscal year 2025, showing a general fund surplus of $11.7 million.<\/p>\n
The Northampton-based accounting firm Gorman & Associates, P.C. conducted the audit and presented its report at Monday\u2019s school board committee meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were no findings as far as material weaknesses or significant deficiencies.”<\/p>\n
Hank Miller, Certified Public Accountant with Gorman & Associates, P.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were no findings as far as material weaknesses or significant deficiencies,\u201d Certified Public Accountant Hank Miller said.<\/p>\n
As of June 30, 2025, the district had $84.1 million in its general fund balance, which started the fiscal year at $72.4 million.<\/p>\n
Of the final general fund balance, $20.1 million was unassigned and $48.5 million was committed for capital projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 Bethlehem Area School District will pay for an investigation of cracks that have developed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[42767,42768,153,42769,42770,155,154,42771,42772,8141],"class_list":{"0":"post-85486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-basd-2025-audit","9":"tag-basd-fountain-elementary-updates","10":"tag-bethlehem","11":"tag-bethlehem-area-school-district-news","12":"tag-bethlehem-area-schools-audit","13":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","14":"tag-bethlehem-news","15":"tag-cracks-in-nitschmann-middle-school","16":"tag-fountain-elementary-school-updates","17":"tag-nitschmann-middle-school"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}