KARNS CITY — From cameras in the ceilings above students to the ground beneath their school building, Karns City Area School District officials are thinking about the details of a revitalized high school.

The district continues to move closer to undergoing a large-scale renovation of the Karns City Jr./Sr. High School that would improve or add classrooms and learning spaces, improve athletic facilities and make significant heating and cooling improvements — at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.

At a board meeting Monday, Aug. 10, district officials said crews had recently taken boring samples — a cylindrical hole drilled into the ground to extract soil and rock core samples — to look at the ground underneath where construction could take place.

“Over the last month, there was a bunch of items site investigations, building investigations done by the various entities that need to be able to produce drawings and reports, things like that,” said John Pappas, construction manager and president of Eckles Construction Services. “Borings and things like that were done last week. We had a team in here collecting data and samples inside the building.”

Meanwhile, Pappas said he met with the district’s security team, working through layouts and potential integration of camera systems.

Pappas also said architects have recently spent time going through staff surveys and met with the administration to focus on “fine-tuning spaces.”

The board approved a resolution Monday evening that the high school project will require intermittent contracts or agreements “be entered into in advance” of regularly scheduled board meetings to prevent project delays.

Cost estimates presented at a special school board meeting in May showed total costs of renovation options for Karns City Area Jr./Sr. High School were initially projected near $50 million.

However, district officials did not indicate they were fully committed to those numbers.

In June, board members finalized a $27.1 million budget along with no tax increase for the 2026-27 school year. Superintendent Eric Ritzert said at the time the renovation proposal would be “pared down.”

Evan McGarvey, the district’s business affairs director, previously said he and others feel obligated to hold taxes where they sit when able to do so. When balancing short-term needs and long-term planning, “it’s important to recognize the burden increases put on taxpayers,” he said.

The district’s school board previously hired Hayes Design Group, a Pittsburgh-based architecture firm, to come up with designs for what a future high school renovation could look like. Pappas said Monday evening that HDG is “progressing” with design development.

Karns City Jr./Sr. High School is among the aging facilities the district has either addressed in recent years or is planning to address.

Located along Kittaning Pike just before it turns into Main Street, the high school holds students in grades 7-12. Mostly built in 1981, with some physical portions dating back to the early 1960s, the high school currently has just over 600 students.

Ritzert first publicly suggested in January 2025 that renovating the high school was on the district’s radar. He said at the time the building is structurally in good condition, but there are aspects of it — such as windows, heating and cooling and electrical work — that need to be repaired.