The Hatboro-Horsham School Board voted unanimously to award bids for the construction of a new Keith Valley Middle School. Dino Ciliberti sharpened his No. 2 pencil to write the story for the Hatboro-Horsham Patch.

Discussion on a new education building has been ongoing in the area since 2008. Further studies made it an unavoidable priority in the past 18 months.

The new school, with a $125 million price tag, will rise in the same Meetinghouse Road vicinity of the existing structure, which dates to 1957.

The age of Keith Valley Middle School and its lack of modern amenities — including air conditioning — have been the predominant drivers of the proposed construction project.

In parsing submitted bids and laying out options for moving forward, Schools Superintendent Scott Eveslage outlined different options, each with different fiscal implications:

• Approve the bids and advance the initiative
• Rebid the project in a year
• Redesign the scope by reducing the square footage
• Scrap the build and renovate the existing school

After a recent two-hour meeting that included public comment, the board decided to endorse the proposal for a new Keith Valley Middle School.

The approved general contractor deepens the effort’s Montgomery County tie: Boro Construction of King of Prussia.

“I understand the gravity of this decision,” the superintendent said of the approval to accept the bids.

More on the rise of a new Keith Valley Middle School is at the Hatboro-Horsham Patch.

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This YouTube video is a virtual fly-through of the proposed new version of Keith Valley Middle School.