Seneca Valley school board members on Monday voted 8-1 against an $11 million renovation plan for Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School, saying they hadn't seen the plan and questioning the amount of money the district was being asked to contribute.

Of the seven school districts served by the vo-tech school, two -- Seneca Valley and South Butler -- have rejected the renovation plan, which is intended to address crowding and an outdated building design at the vo-tech school in Butler Township.

To gain approval, the plan must get an OK from five of the seven school boards and two-thirds of the 63 individual members on the seven boards.

The 63 ballots are to be counted tonight, but Joseph Cunningham, vocational administrative director of the vo-tech school, believes the plan will get the required number of votes.

"The boards have given us the approval to go forward with the project," he said of the five board votes in favor of the plan.

The other districts served by the school are Butler Area, Karns City Area, Mars Area, Moniteau and Slippery Rock.

The vo-tech building, which is owned by Butler Area School District, has 877 students enrolled, exceeding its original capacity of about 600. The project plans call for adding 31,000 square feet of space and renovating about 85,000 square feet. The school also plans to add a welding program to its existing eight programs: automotive technology, auto body collision/repair, building construction, carpentry, cosmetology, culinary arts, machine technology and heavy equipment epair.

Seneca Valley is being asked to contribute the largest amount -- close to 30 percent of the project's total cost. The 104 students Seneca Valley had enrolled at the vo-tech school as of Sept. 10 make up about 11 percent of the enrollment.

Some Seneca Valley board members noted the difference between the enrollment rate and the requested contribution, saying it was unfair.

Board member Joseph Scalamagna called it "socialism."

"We are certainly not the largest user of vo-tech; even the largest user isn't being asked to contribute as much as us," Mr. Scalamagna said.

Butler Area, which has 387 students enrolled, has been asked to contribute the second-largest amount -- 28.3 percent.

Dr. Cunningham said, however, that under an 11-year-old agreement, the debt distribution rate is based in part on assessed property values in each districts.

"It's based on assessed value, and we have no control of how assessed values go for any school district," he said.

Seneca Valley board members also said they hadn't seen the renovation plans.

"I am not aware that the board has seen any plans," Linda Andreassi, communications director of Seneca Valley school district, said Tuesday.

Dr. Cunningham, however, said plans were distributed.

"Drawings of the building design were provided to each superintendent and each school board prior to taking action on this resolution," he said. "There were actually two presentations made to two school boards -- one was Butler and one was Seneca Valley."

Dr. Cunningham added that every board was provided with the opportunity to review the drawings and ask questions about them and the cost.

Seneca Valley school board member Kenneth Brennan was the only member to vote in favor of the renovation resolution.

The school board also accepted a $118,993 bid to pave the parking lot Evans City schools.

The board will next meet at 8 p.m. Monday in the intermediate high school auditorium.

First Published: September 17, 2009, 4:00 a.m.