BUTLER TWP — Though Butler School District officials don't have many details, Pennsylvania American Water may be willing to extend a water line to Summit Township Elementary School.

District officials at Monday night's board meeting gave an update on the progress of efforts to fix the water system at the school and approved several motions concerning the situation.

Acting Superintendent William Pettigrew said that district officials will meet with engineers from Gannett Fleming and representatives of the state Department of Environmental Protection later this week to discuss test results and create a plan for further action.

The building draws water from its own well, but the water currently has unsafe levels of lead and copper, as revealed by tests conducted last year and two new sets of tests this year.

The nearest water line to the school is on Hinchberger Road, officials said, which runs between Freeport Road and Simon Drive in Summit Township.

“We had a bit of very good news last week given to us that there is a strong possibility that Summit Elementary School will be able to access a public water system. We received that from the local water company,” Pettigrew said.

The board voted in favor of officially expressing interest to Pennsylvania American in a water line connection.

Since a water line extension could be costly and could possibly impose mandatory tap-ins on nearby residences, officials said they want to see a presentation or get more details from the water company before committing.

“If we can hook up and let them be the water providers, I'm going to say let's get out of the water business, we're failing miserably at it at this point,” board member Suzie Bradrick said.

The board also voted to authorize attorney Anthony Ditka to act as bond counsel for the district if the district needs to borrow money to remedy the situation at Summit elementary.

The board also voted to use Stantech as the architect to work with the district administration and engineers, as needed.

Pettigrew said that if the district were to tap into a public water line, it would need the services of an architect.

The board also voted to authorize Pettigrew to solicit proposals for fixes at the school for board consideration and to work with the state Department of Education to attempt to have students back at the school for the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.

That motion meant the board was stating its intention to have students return to the school in the fall if possible, but it is still early in the process for the board to make any guarantees, school board President Nina Teff said.

“There is still a lot of stuff that needs to be seen, as far as what costs are associated with the public water, whether that is an option or not, and whatever we have to do to fix the situation at Summit itself,” she said.

Students and teachers have been moved to Broad Street Elementary School in Butler while the problems with the water at Summit elementary persist.

The district on Thursday posted to its website the results of a second round of tests of samples collected by engineering firm Gannett Fleming.

Thirteen samples taken Feb. 16 were tested at a lab and most of the samples showed concentrations of lead well above 15 parts per billion, the action level set by DEP.

It was the second round of water samples taken at the school under the supervision of Gannett Fleming. The first round was collected Jan. 27.

Engineers believe that the well water is too acidic, which has been causing lead solder and copper to dissolve into the water.

One marked difference from the first set of test results was that water from the well head shot up from less than 1 part per billion to 131 ppb.

Pettigrew said that officials believe this result is an anomaly.

Since the school is not being used, the same water has been sitting in the well and in the pipes for weeks, he said.

“The pipe between well and the school is problematic, that we have ascertained,” Pettigrew said in an interview.