Butler Senior High School will tentatively have a new wing of classrooms and a new auditorium for the 2022-23 school year, which will be able to house ninth grade as well as the 10th, 11th and 12th grades, which are currently in the school.

At Monday’s meeting of the Butler Area School District board, its members voted to bid out some additional improvements that will come along with the addition.

The five “alternates” the board approved going out to bid include the creation of a large group instruction classroom, two classrooms built into the soon-to-be-built connector, repainting of the red facia that encompasses the entire campus, exterior signage at the entrance and the installation of a dust collector at the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) area.

“One, two, four and five, all those are needs,” Superintendent Brian White said. “Not that painting something isn’t a need, but the timing could happen, later, (or) it could happen now.”

In the end, the board voted to pursue all of the alternates. The potential rise of the cost of paint was a factor in approving the third alternate.

“If we don’t fix it now, it could get worse,” board president Al Vavro said.

The base addition of the project will add 10 classrooms, a STEM space and a full renovation of the locker room area and weight room.

The district recently received approval from the Butler Township commissioners to go forward with construction on the project. White said that some factors outside the board’s control will influence the project’s completion date, but he hopes for it to be finished by next school year.

He also said the project is coming in at about $300,000 more than the initial estimate received more than a year ago, which is actually an overdraw lower than he anticipated.