Indiana, PA – Indiana County

A long stretch of daily rainy weather put some crimps in the plans for contractors working on the six Indiana Area School District buildings this summer.

With that wave of challenges behind, the supervisors and workers have tweaked their schedules and all now expect to meet their deadlines as planned.

When the school bells ring and students start classes for the new school year on Aug. 27 (the Tuesday before Labor Day), the only work still under way will be in Ben Franklin and Eisenhower elementary schools.

And school officials say the students and teachers in the classrooms should barely notice. Just as when work began and continued through the 2012-13 school year, renovations will be done after school hours or in areas away from the classrooms.

But in the four other buildings Horace Mann and East Pike elementary schools and the junior- and senior-high schools all the work should be finished and the students should see finished products.

That is, as long as the nice weather prevails, said Greg Trout, the supervisor of buildings and grounds for the district.

This school-by-school status check for the district is unprecedented. Since early 2012, the Indiana Area School District has taken on a project like no other in its history.

Because of state school funding guidelines, large-scale projects in the past were limited to one building at a time.

But under a new state law that allows schools to work outside those traditional rules choosing the contractors that can do the most efficient rather than the least expensive work Indiana designed a districtwide plan to make improvements that will pay for themselves by reducing energy consumption and utility bills.

With a district-appointed project manager called an ESCo Energy Services Company to oversee the improvements, a series of subcontractors have installed new lighting systems, water-saving plumbing fixtures and weatherproofing measures in all the schools.

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Indiana, PA - Indiana County