Camden school officials and the state's School Development Authority agreed to a plan Tuesday night to preserve the iconic central tower at Camden High School while tearing down the rest to replace it with a new building.
The plan, according to the SDA, saves $18 million over the cost of refurbishing the entire facade of the aging school. Officials there say building new is also more efficient than trying to rehabilitate the entire structure from within.
The compromise is not a surprise - the elements of this deal have been on the table for a few weeks now - but what might be noteworthy is that this is the first tangible example of a new approach at the SDA, the successor of the much-maligned School Construction Corp., which was riddled with wasteful spending in its first go-round.
“We need to balance historic preservation with meeting the needs of the kids,” said SDA chief executive Kris Kolluri, who took over in December. The Camden project is the first major plan which he has stepped in to alter. “It is absolutely a different approach to school construction.”
Lawmakers, many of them skeptical, approved borrowing an additional $3.9 billion for school projects last year. This plan may be an attempt to show that it won't be wasted.
We'll have more details in Thursday's Inquirer.
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