An overhaul of Memorial Field will probably include the eventual demolition of the State College schools’ adjacent administration building, 131 W. Nittany Ave., and the relocation of district offices to the Boalsburg area.
That’s the plan the school board seemed to endorse, however informally, on Monday night. Members are expected to vote Feb. 14 on a general, multi-year concept plan for the future of Memorial Field, at South Fraser Street and West Nittany Avenue in State College borough.
Board Vice President Jim Pawelczyk said he likes the two-story building at 131 W. Nittany Ave., which started life as the Nittany Avenue Grammar School in 1924.
‘But if you have no reason to keep this building, then you’re compromising stadium design around a facility you don’t need,’ he said.
Pawelczyk advocated consolidating district administrative functions in the Panorama Village Elementary School, 240 Villa Crest Drive, which is expected to close as a school when the new Mount Nittany Elementary opens this fall.
Pawelczyk and Ed Poprik, the district facilities director, said the Panorama building is large enough that it also could absorb the administrative functions now housed in the former College Heights elementary school, on South Atherton Street near Hillcrest Avenue. That would free up the College Heights property for a sale or ‘adaptive reuse,’ Pawelczyk said.
Poprik said the Panorama building could house some administrative offices that are now in the old high school building on Fairmount Avenue, as well. That building — a full block deep, between West Nittany and West Fairmount avenues — holds offices for community education and the district registrar, among other functions.
Acting Superintendent Michael Hardy said he thinks the Panorama Village site ‘would certainly work’ as an administration site. He said it’s a convenient location with ample parking.
For administrative offices, he said, the district needs ‘simply an enclosed space, climate control and a place to park.’
But the timing of the Panorama building’s evolution, Hardy said, will be key. The district may want to use the facility for short-term overflow classrooms as it overhauls more elementary schools in the foreseeable future. That may tie up the space on a temporary basis before administrators can move in.
The school board has yet to establish a specific timetable for upgrades at Memorial Field, anyway. Members said Monday that their concept plan should allow for multi-year phasing of project elements and financing, which could include private gifts. Excluding expenses for the 131 W. Nittany Ave. building, stadium-improvement costs are expected in the $12.8 million-to-$14.9 million range, Poprik said.
Board members appeared to agree that fixing up the west-side bleachers, which have begun to fail, and new field turf should top the to-do list for the coming year or so. More than 300 seats on the west side, along Fraser Street, have been shielded from public access. And the turf, too, is nearing the end of its useful life, district officials have said.
On a longer-term basis, Memorial Field improvements are expected to include new stands on the east side, new concession areas and new bathrooms and locker rooms. Pawelczyk on Monday also pushed for a more enclosed stadium design — one that would allow spectators to circulate through the facility without leaving its gates.
He said that safety feature could include some new fencing at the adjacent Sidney Friedman Park — formerly Central Parklet — where students often congregate on football Fridays.
In addition, Pawelczyk proposed that the stadium capacity be held to 4,000 seats — roughly the current capacity. He said the stadium design should include space to grow capacity to 5,500 eventually. But that shouldn’t happen until the administration can justify the extra 1,500 seats based on attendance records, he said.
There was no unanimity on that point, though. Board member Dorothea Stahl said she would like to see a minimum capacity of 4,800 seats. District consultants, she said, have not developed concepts for a capacity smaller than that.
But Pawelczyk said the consultants’ concepts are very rough — not final proposed designs.
‘We have no design,’ he said. ‘We’ve had a couple concepts thrown out there, and that’s what architects do.’
In any case, board members said, the district needs to move quickly on its planning. If no improvements are made, State College home football games will need to relocate to Philipsburg, Altoona, Hollidaysburg and Lewistown within three to five years, member Richard Bartnik said.
‘The field is becoming unsafe for the players to play on. The west stands are falling down,’ he said. ‘And the east stands are beginning to mirror that.’
In other business at the Monday board meeting, Hardy introduced a proposed school calendar for the 2011-2012 school year. It was developed by a committee representing students, parents, employees and administrators.
The proposed calendar would align days off for students at all grade levels — something that hasn’t happened in years, Hardy said. It would start school on Aug. 30 and end it on June 7, though snow days could push that back.
Another proposed change would have school in session on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Right now, schools close in observance of the holiday.
Hardy said the committee members believe that it would be more effective to have school in session that day. Plans are in the works to develop district-wide service activities and diversity studies for the day.
‘We’re looking at this as a ‘day on,’ committed to service and learning, as opposed to a day off,’ Hardy said.
The calendar also would close the schools for the first three days of Penn State’s spring break in March 2012. Board members are expected to vote on the calendar plan Feb. 14. More details are posted on the district website.
Also Feb. 14, the board is scheduled to vote on a preliminary budget for the 2011-2012 school year. And it will hear an administration plan for elementary-school redistricting, Hardy said. He said the district will be working with the families of students who may be affected.
Earlier coverage
