Mount Nittany Elementary Opens $21M Expansion. See Inside

State College Area School District on Friday celebrated the completion of a $21 million expansion and renovation of Mount Nittany Elementary School designed to meet shifting enrollment and instructional needs.

District leaders, teachers, students and families gathered at the K-5 school on Brandywine Drive in College Township for a ribbon-cutting and open-house tours of the addition.

“We’re celebrating the opportunities that this addition will create for our students, for our staff, for our entire school community,” Mount Nittany Elementary Principal Beth Nunez said. “And I think that’s especially meaningful because this addition marks a new chapter in our school story as well — a chapter that represents the power of collaboration. It’s a reminder that when people bring their talents and ideas and efforts together, remarkable things like this can happen.

“This project was not built by one person or one group. It was built through partnership, perseverance and a shared belief in our students and in their future.”

A 2023 study identified Mount Nittany as the only of the district’s eight elementary schools identified as having immediate capacity concerns that need to be addressed, based on an analysis of enrollment trends and projections over 10 years. With a student enrollment of about 425, the school’s 18 existing classrooms were typically at full use, and for several years that necessitated moving two fifth-grade classrooms to the nearby Panorama Village Administrative Building.

The school board approved plans for the expansion and renovation in 2024 and construction began in 2025.

When the school opened in 2011, merging the former Boalsburg and Panorama Village elementary schools, it was designed to have room to grow, including a potential third wing.

“Here we are 15 years later,” SCASD Superintendent Curtis Johnson said. “Obviously some forward thinking went into that decision.”

The project added 36,627 square feet of new construction and 2,939 square feet of renovated space. It includes six new classrooms, along with STEM, instrumental music and small-group instruction spaces.

Large instruction spaces include tiered bench seating on the central staircase in the new main entrance lobby, where a giant screen is installed on the ground level.

The expansion also added ae larger cafeteria and kitchen, improved parking, a new bus drop-off loop, two grass playing fields and an ADA accessible playground. With support from the school’s PTO, the cafeteria also includes a new book vending machine.

A 158-kilowatt solar array on the roof is expected to provide about 18% of the energy for the building, which was designed for LEED Silver certification

“The addition was designed with our students and our community’s future in mind,” Johnson said.

Looking to the future, librarian Dustin Brackbill spearheaded a time capsule, also supported by the PTO, that will be buried in a vault with a marker created by Mayes Memorials in Lemont. It will be opened in 2051.

The time capsule includes a yearbook and other school documents; a few toys, collectibles and books; symbols of school achievements like championship ribbons; magazines and newspapers; an iPhone; a soccer ball representing the World Cup; a book with wishes, favorites and messages from students and staff; and a letter explaining it all to the children and teachers of 25 years in the future.

In the much nearer future, teachers will return next week, and Nunez noted ahead of Friday’s open house the some of the classrooms were unfinished because faculty were still on summer break.

“I think there’s something very fitting about that because today is not about a finished building,” Nunez said. “It’s about a new beginning. Every decision behind this addition was made with students in mind. I can’t wait to see how our Lion Cubs make this space their own.”

Students will begin utilizing those new spaces with the first day of school on Aug. 25.

School Board President Aaron Miller said he is looking forward to students experiencing the investment.

“To our kids, our students who are here in particular, this building is especially for you,” Miller said. “This represents more than brick and mortar and glass, and apparently a gigantic TV. This represents our commitment to you and to your learning. And I want to tell you, we really look forward as your community to seeing you fill this space with laughter and joy and love, and especially learning.”