SELINSGROVE — The announcement Monday night of a $33,000 change order request for the Selinsgrove Elementary School construction project frustrated school board members, who said it isn’t the first change to the original design plan they have had to fix.

“We seem to have had a significant amount of design problems on this subject,” said board member Larry Augustine. He was upset, he said, that the only solution they continued to find was for the school district to pay for the designers’ mistakes.

Superintendent Fred Johnson said he is aware of the problem and that the subject has been broached and soon will be discussed by officials. A list of all the problems is being compiled, he said.

The new $33,000 change order reflects inefficiency of new kitchen equipment and a need to adjust shelving and enlarge a new triple sink to bring it up to state sanitation standards, said Kevin Oswald, food service director.

“The kitchen design was poor,” Oswald added. “It’s horrendous. And it’s a shame. We want to be excited about it.”

The designer, he said, “didn’t do his homework.”

Board member Cynthia O’Hora made a motion that the change order be covered by the food and nutrition department’s checking account, which she said has a balance of $241,000.

“It can certainly cover this purchase,” she said.

Oswald said his needs for next year could result in him easily spending $100,000 just to replace the outdated computers and a $30,000 to $40,000 dish-washing machine.

“When you have a balance, you want to save it because you don’t know,” he said.

The board voted down her proposal 5-4 and later voted unanimously to pay the change order from the building fund account.

Renovation projects at the high school can use whatever is left after the elementary school project is completed, said Jeff Hummel, business manager.

The contingency amount for the elementary school project is $300,000.

In other business, school board members praised Charles Longwell, high school assistant principal, for quickly obtaining enough H1N1 virus vaccinations for the district’s students.

Its scarcity in other parts of the nation and news reports that many who received the vaccination would not have access to the booster shots prompted member Paul Spiegel to commend Longwell.