Twin Valley Weighs $617K in Ballfield Video Boards, Dugouts

The Twin Valley School District board meets Monday, Oct. 19, to vote on two more pieces of its high school baseball and softball field project: $247,000 in video boards and $370,000 in new dugouts, a combined $617,000 by our arithmetic. The votes come four weeks after the board authorized A-Turf to renovate the fields for up to $4,188,207, according to draft minutes of the Sept. 21 meeting that are in the same packet and up for approval Monday. The agenda does not say how the district will pay for any of it.

The campus is in Caernarvon Township, in southeast Berks County, with an Elverson mailing address. Robeson and Caernarvon townships and New Morgan Borough are its Berks municipalities; the rest of the district is in Chester County. All three pay a 31.252-mill school rate for 2026, per our guide to Berks property tax rates by municipality.

$617,000 more for the ballfields

The first new-business item asks the board to approve "the proposal from Musco Sports Lighting, LLC for the installation of Videoboards at the Twin Valley High School softball and baseball fields at a cost of $247,000, under COSTARS Contract No. 014-E22-240" (packet, p. 1). The background note says the proposal "outlines the costs and specifications for the video boards," but the proposal is not attached, so the boards' size and features are not in the packet.

COSTARS is Pennsylvania's cooperative purchasing program, which lets school districts buy from contracts the state has already negotiated, giving them, the state says, "access to competitive pricing without the time and cost of running your own competitive bidding process" (Department of General Services).

The second item asks the board to approve "a proposal from M&W Precast, LLC for the baseball and softball dugouts at the Twin Valley High School, at a cost of $370,000," which the packet calls "part of the softball/baseball field renovation project," with the work "expected to be completed before the start of the 2026-2027 Spring Baseball and Softball season" (p. 1). That proposal is not in the packet either, and the agenda does not say whether other quotes were sought.

Neither item names a funding source, but the packet's financial pages show where field spending has come from so far. An account labeled "Fulton 2024 Bond Checking," booked to the Other Capital Projects Fund, paid ELA Group Inc. $28,611.72 for "athletic field renovations" on Oct. 9 and paid Caernarvon Township $1,406.25 in three checks for a highway occupancy permit application, a stormwater review and "HS field project" (p. 27). That fund, budgeted at zero for the year, spent $305,477.09 in September and $331,527.74 so far this year, with another $326,240.41 committed but unpaid, $176,425.41 of it for architects and engineers (pp. 43-46). Of September's spending, $278,286 was booked to the fund's existing-building-improvement account. The district's 2024 bond accounts show the same $305,477.09 going out in September, leaving $8,387,664.77 at Sept. 30 (p. 57). The packet does not say whether the $617,000 and the $4.19 million contract will draw on the same bond money. For an $18.2 million Berks school athletic project, see our report on Schuylkill Valley's fieldhouse and the bond that funds it.

What the draft minutes say happened Sept. 21

Our preview of the Sept. 21 meeting said the board would vote on the A-Turf contract, a change to Superintendent Robert Scoboria's contract tied to his planned retirement, and cutting the facilities director's job to half time. The draft minutes in Monday's packet record all three passing 8-0, with board member Kyle Moyer absent (pp. 11-12, 16, 19).

On the fields, the draft minutes say the board voted "to authorize A-Turf to renovate baseball and softball fields, for a total price not to exceed $4,188,207, on or before March 1, 2027," with Allison Bolt, John Burdy, Nicholas DiGiacomo, Trevor Glass, Gary McEwen, Jason Oliver, Tracy Phillips and Colleen Yenser voting yes (p. 12). The background note repeats September's caveat: "The final contract between TVSD and A-Turf is pending legal review." Monday's packet includes no signed contract and does not say whether that review is finished.

The same draft minutes record an 8-0 vote for an "Interim Professional Support Services Agreement with Devopar Consulting" effective Sept. 22, plus a memorandum of understanding with the teachers' union about it (p. 12). The packet does not describe the services; its general fund bill list shows a $28,446.92 payment to Devopar Consulting on Sept. 17 for "August services" (p. 21), before the interim agreement took effect.

The draft minutes say the board approved the superintendent's contract amendment and that McEwen, the board president, read a statement thanking Scoboria "for his 33 years of service to public education," with retirement effective June 30, 2027, and welcoming the time "before beginning an extensive search process for his successor" (p. 16). The amendment's terms are not in the packet. The draft minutes also record Thomas S. Schiel's director of facilities post cut to a 50 percent position effective Oct. 1, "for reasons of economy" (p. 19), and two residents, Whitney Kemp and Elizabeth Russ, speaking on communications, teacher stress at Robeson Elementary Center and transparency (p. 12). Sept. 14 draft minutes, also up for approval, record McEwen stating "that with the declining enrollment, we may need to look at redistricting" (p. 9).

Also on the agenda

• Treasurer's report for September. The general fund bill list totals $7,508,244.28 and covers payments dated Sept. 14 through Oct. 20 (pp. 2, 21, 26). The agenda's $50,492.97 "capital reserve expenditures" line combines $20,475.00 of capital reserve bills with $30,017.97 from the Other Capital Projects Fund, which is the four field-project checks above (pp. 27-28). The district reported $44,515,000 in bond principal outstanding (p. 58).
• A student settlement agreement addendum, "SSA 25:26:06," with no amount or description given (p. 2).
• Policy 807 (Opening Exercises/Flag Display) for a second reading, and Policies 209 (Health Examinations/Screenings) and 246, listed as School Wellness on the agenda and titled Student Wellness in the policy text, for first readings (pp. 2, 99-109).
• Personnel: a registered nurse at $59,355 a year, prorated; a PIMS/data manager at $56,000; high school musical staff totaling $18,000; and two girls soccer co-head coaches after the head coach resigned Oct. 2 (pp. 2-4, 7).

How to attend or comment

The meeting is at the district office, 4851 North Twin Valley Road, Elverson. The agenda does not print a start time; the board's Sept. 14 and Sept. 21 meetings were both called to order at 6:35 p.m., according to the draft minutes (pp. 8, 11). District office: 610-286-8600.

To comment, you must attend in person: district residents and taxpayers state their name, address and municipality, remarks are limited to three minutes, and the period is for comments, not questions, according to the district board-meeting page. The agenda adds that commenters complete a card and follow the posted procedure under Policy 006 (p. 1). A livestream pop-up link appears on the district homepage 15 minutes before the start. The Sept. 21 recording is linked under "2026 Meetings" in the Agendas section of the Agendas & Minutes page; that page's separate video archive stops at December 2024.

If approved, the dugouts are due before the spring season, and the A-Turf work, as the draft minutes describe it, by March 1, 2027.