Story by Curtis Walsh – Beaver County Radio. Published January 7, 2026 1:02 A.M.
(Center Township, Pa) Ongoing discussions over needed repairs to the New Horizon School continued Tuesday evening at the Beaver Valley Intermediate Unit meeting.
The Intermediate Unit invited Superintendents from all Beaver County school districts to take part in the discussion.
New Horizon, the only Beaver County school for special needs students, had to vacate their Brighton Township building after the discovery of mold.
The mold was initially discovered by staff in a kitchenette area. After a subsequent investigation into the rest of the facilty, mold was found in 64 rooms and other areas. Abspestos was found as well.
SiteLogic is handling the logistics of making the necessary repairs. They previously presented the board with multiple options to correct the issues, with the lowest cost being just over 8 million. They clarified Tuesday night that those were early estimates and the cost has increased due to the number of issues found in the building.
While they intially quoted the full project to be around 20 million dollars, they are now suggesting it can be done at around 15 million or less, depending on factors such as final amounts for bid contracts and the cutting of extra optional work such as adding new rooms, windows, restroom facilites, and dimming LED lights.
The secondary main expense in addition to gutting the walls and fixing the primary mold problem is the HVAC system.
Professionals who inspected the system determined it needed to be fully replaced.
The HVAC system is thought to be the cause of the mold, due to univentilator leaks and non-dehumidifying capabilities.
As the microphone was passed around to Superintendants and representatives of county schools, all of them made it clear that they support fixing New Horizon. Many stated that previous issues they had with the project only had to do with aspects of the project being unclear.
Western Beaver Superintendant Dr. Robert Postupac stated “Western Beaver is fully committed to helping New Horizon”.
New Brighton Superintendant Dr. Joseph Gaurino said “we fully support this, we are anxious to get this going and moving forward”.
Southside: “We have no interest in seeing new horizon close.”
Riverside: “We fully support it and have been committed for over 50 years”.
Midland: “We need to make sure we know we have done everything we can to minimize this problem from coming back”.
Freedom: “legislators need to help. Schools have been funded for football lights, we need money to help this school”.
Central Valley: “We are in full support of the project”.
Beaver: “we appreciate the colloratative nature and hopefully we can get it moving forward”.
Ambridge: “each child deserves a special place, and New horizon is for these children. I wouldn’t think of sending them anywhere else”.
Aliquippa: “we 100% support new horizon”.
Beaver Falls: “we always do what’s best for our kids. Beaver falls is fully committed”.
Hopewell: supports the project and “advocating for clear info about the renovation.”
Midway through the meeting, Beaver County Commissioner Chairman Dan Camp made an unexpected surprise announcement that the Beaver County Commissioners are committing one million dollars to the project.
The County will contribute $250,000 per year over the course of four years.
Camp told Beaver County Radio that the money will come from reserve funds and assured it will not affect taxpayers.
The approximately 40 people in attendance, as well as the board and district representatives applauded Camp following the announcement.
By the end of the nearly 4 hour meeting, all districts seemed to be in agreement of a resolution to pursue a fifteen million dollar loan to fix the school.
A final vote is expected to take place later this month at the next Intermediate Unit meeting.
New Horizon is currently temporarily housing their school in Midland at a cost of around $500,000.
Everyone involved aims to have work start as soon possible, hoping to have the school reopened for the start of the 2026-2027 school year.
