It's a vision thing.

That's what has the Pine-Richland school board perplexed.

A vision is needed for the middle school and high school before committing to renovating or expanding the buildings that share a campus on Warrendale Road in Pine.

A discussion on "the vision thing" started when Dan Engen, of Eckles Architecture, presented bids for improvements at Pine-Richland Middle School during Tuesday's school board meeting. The improvements include renovating the cafeteria, installing skylights, tearing down a crumbling chimney, moving the school's flagpole and illuminating it and improving the sound systems in the auditorium and gymnasium.

All told, the middle school improvements would cost $372,350. However, some items were bid as proposed alternatives. The board will decide Sept. 16 exactly what work will be done when it awards the contract.

"How much do we want to put into this building?" board President Stephen Hawbaker asked, referring to the middle school, which was built in the 1950s.

Also at issue is what to do with the high school, which is nearing capacity. A 44-member committee studied the question of expanding the high school and has given a list of suggestions to the school board. The board's next step is to hire an architectural firm to study the feasibility of the committee's suggestions and estimate the cost.

A high priority cited by the committee was to keep the ninth grade housed in the high school building. School board members have questioned whether it would be more cost effective to move the ninth grade to the middle school, which now houses seventh and eighth grades. The sixth grade was moved from the middle school this year to the new Eden Hall Upper Elementary School.

The committee's study is the "dream of this district," Mr. Hawbaker said. The school board's next step is to define what the district needs to do while keeping its budget in mind, he added.

The subject will come up again at the school board's Sept. 16 meeting, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Eden Hall Upper Elementary School. Because the board's discussions have been lengthy, board members said it might benefit them to schedule a separate meeting just to discuss their vision for the buildings in the district.