A local school district is receiving millions of dollars in federal funding for a community development project.

Congress appropriated $3.5 million to the Dallas School District earlier this month for renovations that will turn a district field house into the refurbished Dallas School District Community Center.

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser issued a news release Friday celebrating the funding for Dallas’ project. A description of the project in the news release said it will create a “wellness space” available for use by both the school district and the entire Back Mountain, while “expanding access to physical, social, and community wellness activities year-round.”

Meuser also took note of a separate, $700,000 Community Funding Project award that Congress has allocated to a project renovating Old Airport Road in Butler Twp. That project will cover 1.2 miles and is designed to improve the road’s reliability, safety, and stormwater management.

“These are the kinds of investments that will improve the quality of life here in Luzerne County, from safer roads to improved facilities for our local schools,” Meuser, R-9, Jackson Twp., said. “I was pleased to work hand in hand with the Dallas School District and Luzerne County to secure this funding so students have every opportunity to thrive, and residents can count on infrastructure that is built to last.”

Superintendent Thomas Duffy, discussing the $3.5 million in funding at a Feb. 9 school board meeting, said the district applied for a Community Funding Project award from the federal Economic Development Initiative in May. He said Meuser’s office alerted the district around Feb. 5 that it had received federal funding.

“We are deeply grateful for your support and advocacy on behalf of our students and the greater Back Mountain community,” Duffy said, while reading aloud a statement of gratitude he had written to Meuser.

The superintendent also stressed that the federal award, to his knowledge, did not necessitate the use of any matching district funds.

“We’re thrilled, I mean, anytime we get additional resources that ultimately could benefit our students, that’s a good day,” Duffy said. “We’re talking about a $3.5 million opportunity and that’s good for kids and the existing structure is in need.”

Details of the project are still in development. Before the project begins, district leadership will confer with experts in public-facility and athletic-complex projects, as well as with experts familiar with relevant federal regulations. There will be a structural evaluation of the existing field house, including analyses of mechanical, engineering, plumbing, and fire-suppression systems; and checks for building-code and American with Disabilities Act compliance. This will be paired with site-and-land development analyses evaluating environmental effects, stormwater management, utility capacity and service connections, and surrounding traffic. Any expansion of the building may also require it to satisfy additional regulations Duffy called “expansion-triggered compliance thresholds.”

Duffy also stressed that significant renovation work is already known to be necessary at the existing field house building. Duffy called the  facility’s heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system “antiquated,” saying it has presented the district with “significant challenges” during this extraordinarily cold winter. He also said the building’s roof is nearing the end of its “useful life.”

“In essence, before we can get into what everybody’s dreams and ideas and inputs would be, we really have to take a look at that existing structure and be very realistic,” Duffy said. “A fair amount of that number ($3.5 million) may need to go to simply bringing the building up to code….”

The grant also requires the district to solicit what Duffy described as “stakeholder input and community engagement” across the Back Mountain. Duffy said the district may organize town halls and focus-group conversations or circulate surveys.

“So, we need to engage those (Back Mountain) groups and come in and see what they’d like,” Duffy said. “We articulated that in the application and now we need to stay true to that application and make sure that we’re getting input from all the groups that we have down.”

Congress approved the $3.5 million award to Dallas as part of an appropriation bill it passed Feb. 3 to fund the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Transportation, and several independent agencies. That bill was itself part of a $1.29 trillion legislative package that included other appropriation measures for fiscal year 2026; as well as a continuing resolution that funded the Department of Homeland Security, which houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, through Friday.

The Senate voted for the package 71-29 and the House of Representatives did so 217-214, as 21 Democrats in the House joined with 196 Republicans to have the measure passed. Meuser, Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas Twp., and Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa. (Braddock) and Dave McCormick, R-Pa. (Pittsburgh) were all among those who voted in the affirmative.

Duffy said Meuser’s office told the district that the disbursement schedule for the funding unfolds over a period ranging from three to six months and the project’s expected start date is within one year of that disbursement, though that was generally subject to change.

“We are going to really approach (the project) with a great deal of pragmatism and we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” Duffy said. “Ideas are easy. Implementation’s a little bit trickier and we have to put the time in to make sure that we’re approaching it the right way.”

 Public School Facility Improvement state grant

Duffy also announced at the Feb. 9 school board meeting that the district is planning to apply for the Public School Facility Improvement Grant from the state Department of Community & Economic Development. A school project is eligible for the grant if it matches one item on a select set of infrastructure improvements and costs between $500,000 and $5 million. The grant can cover at most three quarters of the total project cost and the school district must cover at least one quarter.

Duffy said Dallas is applying for the grant in order to replace HVAC equipment at the middle school, which he called “aging.” He noted that last year, Dallas received $300,000 in grant funding to facilitate its roof project at the Wycallis Primary Center.

“We’re going to aggressively pursue it,” Duffy said of the competitive state grant. “Instead of chasing broken HVAC units, and that’s what we’re doing now, we can proactively update some of these units.”

In other facilities news, Duffy said the district anticipates the delivery and installation of its newly purchased new metal-detector system at the high school after the long Presidents Day weekend. The system is expected to be operational by Wednesday.