It’s back.
The future of the State High campus will return to the State College school board agenda next month, board members agreed Monday.
At first, they will review the high school’s academic needs and how those programmatic priorities might influence a facilities overhaul. They will also start considering potential funding mechanisms for the physical improvements.
Both subjects are on a work-session agenda for July 28. It will begin at 7 p.m. in the board room at 131 W. Nittany Ave.
‘It’s pretty much inevitable that the next project we have to consider is the high school,’ board Vice President Jim Pawelczyk said at the Monday meeting.
‘That’s my recommendation,’ replied Ed Poprik, the school district’s director of physical plant.
Poprik said the entire facilities-improvement process for State College Area High School is likely to last seven or eight years, from the program review this summer and to the completion of construction.
Under his proposed timetable, the board wouldn’t finalize building designs until sometime late next year or in 2012.
‘A lot of groundwork needs to be done before we discuss what kind of building we want,’ Poprik said.
Discussion about facilities improvements at State High has been on hold for the past couple years. The school houses grades nine through 12 in two buildings — the North Building and the South Building — on the 600 block of Westerly Parkway.
The oldest parts of the South Building date to the early 1960s; the oldest sections of the North Building, to the 1950s. Some areas have the campus have been prone to flooding, while others are simply outdated and heavily worn, school officials have said.
‘You can’t walk through there and not realize you have to do something,’ board member Dorothea Stahl said earlier this spring.
About five years ago, a two-year controversy erupted when a prior school board developed a $102 million expansion-and-consolidation plan for the school.
That concept would have united all four grades — nine through 12 — in a single, dramatically expanded North Building and demolished the South Building.
Outcry over the idea helped new candidates win seats on the school board in 2007. But the State High question has taken something of a back burner since then, as the new board has focused on improving the elementary-school system.
Now that two elementary projects are in progress — at the Ferguson Township and Mount Nittany schools — the district should wait for their completion before planning any other elementary-level construction, Poprik told the board. He said the district can take the emerging lessons from the Ferguson and Mount Nittany projects and apply them later to the next elementary improvements.
In the meantime, he said, State High’s North and South buildings are both in need of critical work. The district’s Facility Master Plan Steering Committee has recommended that the board keep State High on Westerly Parkway and renovate the existing structures, build new ones or do some combination of both.
Pawelczyk said financial constraints ‘may mean a lot of renovations and some new construction’ for State High. He said an emphasis on ‘small learning communities’ is likely to be a key in the planning process.
In other business Monday night:
- Pawelczyk, speaking on behalf of the board, extended condolences to the loved ones of Andrew Keim. A State High history teacher, Keim died unexpectedly last week. Pawelczyk led a moment of silence in Keim’s honor. In lieu of sending flowers to the Keim family, Pawelczyk said, people may make contributions to Centre County PAWS in Keim’s memory.
- The board voted 7-0 to adopt a budget of $113.66 million for the 2010-11 school year. It includes a property-tax increase of about three percent. Board President Ann McGlaughlin and board member Gowen Roper were absent.
- The board approved a $50 fee for behind-the-wheel driver-education classes. It will take effect for student drivers who begin their training on or after Aug. 31. The classes are not mandatory.
- Assistant Superintendent Michael Hardy shared an update from the district’s Math Review Committee. He said the curriculum-review committee has extended its timetable and plans to select two pilot-program offerings by October. The board may implement those pilot programs as part of an ongoing effort to rework the district’s elementary math classes.
- The board approved new processing fees for alumni transcript requests. The approved prices are $5 apiece for each official transcript and $3 apiece for each unofficial transcript. New graduates will not be charged for copies of their transcripts, board members said.
Earlier coverage: State High’s Keim Remembered For ‘Huge Heart And Compassion’ State College Board to Revisit State High Plan
Related coverage: Board Tentatively Approves Boalsburg Elementary Sale; Catholic High School Planned
