Montour Superintendent Patrick Dworakowski hopes to put a revised renovation plan before the school board Dec. 4, and wants to have construction underway as students leave the building June 3 for summer break.

Given the troubled history of the high school renovation project, those are challenging goals. An even greater challenge, though, may be convincing the public that the project's troubles are over.

"All we can do at this point is continue to communicate," Dr. Dworakowski said at the board's building committee meeting Tuesday. He promised to make updates at board meetings, and has launched a renovation blog on the district's Web site, www.montourschools.com.

Whether that will allay the fears of those who have watched plans come and go for six years remains to be seen.

"I can't look over my shoulder and tell all the reasons for things in the past," said Dr. Dworakowski, who was named Montour High School principal in 2005 and superintendent in 2007. "We have to deal with what's in front of us."

What's in front of him is a new construction manager, a new construction plan, an old renovation design and a whole set of questions about what parts of the design are still good and, of course, a half-gutted high school building hobbling through its second year as a construction site without a new brick being laid.

That's not at all how things were supposed to be.

The renovation was launched amid much fanfare last year. It was designed around the district's innovative move to technology education, with ample lab space and top-end systems.

The approach to construction was innovative as well; Carl DeJulio, who was acting superintendent in 2006-07, stayed on to oversee the project as a consultant, and it was bid under the newly legal "one-prime" process, with one contractor handling the whole project.

But it foundered in the spring when construction bids came in about $5 million over budget. Then architect Victor Graves and construction manager PJ Dick Inc., clashed over how to cut down the costs.

Finally, last month, the board made a clean sweep. Mr Graves was replaced on the project by his partner, David McLean. P.J. Dick and Dr. DeJulio, who had contracts to oversee demolition, were not given contracts for construction.

The board named Burns & Scalo, a Green Tree real estate development company, as construction manager and announced it would abandon the "one-prime" concept.

Dr. Dworakowski said he has, since then, been busy going through the designs and the building site with high school principal Todd Price, business manager Sam Reichl and representatives of Burns & Scalo.

"We're doing a number of reviews in regards to materials, the way classrooms are laid out and the use of technology," he said.

They are not, however, throwing out the essential designs or the concept underlying them.

"We are not starting over," Dr. Dworakowski said. "We have a design, and the design goes into great detail. We have recognized, though, that there are some things in these designs that need to be looked at."

The project was described last month as "over-designed," calling for expensive, top-quality building materials in unnecessary places and with systems that were more complex than they needed to be.

Dr. Dworakowski said an overhaul might yield enough of a savings to restore some of the cuts that were targeted at the auditorium. Designed to be state-of-the-art, plans for that facility were hit hard as Dr. DeJulio and P.J. Dick tried to cut the extra $5 million out of the project, prompting an outcry from local supporters of the arts.

The design element Dr. Dworakowski wants to safeguard most, though, is the initial focus on technology education. Besides lab space and computers, the program calls for a certain amount of machine-work capacity, so students can actually execute their designs.

Dr. Dworakowski noted that the district already floated a $46 million bond issue for the project. "We only have so much money to spend," he said.

Still, he noted, "I want to make sure the concept we started with is still in the project."