The new Mount Nittany Elementary School and the rebuilt Ferguson Township Elementary School remain on track for completion before Aug. 30, the first day of school, an administrator said Monday.
Both projects appear highly likely to remain within budget, a little more than $16.5 million apiece, said Ed Poprik, the State College Area School District facilities director.
He said most areas of the new buildings could receive their occupancy permits as soon as this week. But the original wing of the Ferguson Township building — in the last phases of a comprehensive renovation effort — will receive its occupancy permit no earlier than Aug. 24, Poprik said.
‘We are down to the wire,’ he told the school board on Monday night. ‘I am concerned’ because it’s close to the start of the school year.
Still, Poprik added, ‘in no way am I panicking. … I’m very, very confident that students will be in both buildings on Aug. 30.’
The Mount Nittany Elementary project, an entirely new school near Boalsburg, will house kindergarten through fifth-grade students who otherwise would have attended the former Panorama Village and Boalsburg schools. (The Boalsburg school is being converted for use as St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy; the Panorama Village building may become the school district’s new administrative hub.)
In Ferguson Township, the elementary school — along state Route 45 in Pine Grove Mills — has undergone a comprehensive overhaul. The school’s original wing is being revamped to house the school office, library, art and music classrooms and a small-group-instruction space.
Meanwhile, a 1960s-era wing was demolished. Two new wings — one a classroom wing, the other housing an all-purpose room and a connecting corridor — have been constructed.
Poprik said the Ferguson Township building’s new library may not be fully stocked by the time school begins, but it should be very shortly thereafter. Community introduction events — to introduce the new facilities to the public — are likely to be scheduled for early October, district spokeswoman Julie Miller said.
Photos and additional details highlighting both projects are available in news items posted earlier on StateCollege.com. Click here for a Mount Nittany Elementary gallery; click here for a Ferguson Township Elementary gallery.
In other school-board news Monday night:
- New Superintendent Robert O’Donnell presided over his first public school-board meeting since beginning his new job July 27. He’s been spending a lot of time meeting with and listening to district employees and community residents, he said.
In addition, O’Donnell said, he has begun engaging in preliminary budget-planning work for the next budget cycle and has toured the district’s facilities projects.
Board President Ann McGlaughlin presented O’Donnell with a framed original copy of the Pennsylvania Common School Act of 1834. ‘As you take on the role of superintendent,’ McGlaughlin said, the board hopes the document ‘will serve as a guide and inspiration for many years to come.’
- The board voted 4-1 to seek proposals anew for student-photography services. Board members Dorothea Stahl, Penni Fishbaine, David Hutchinson and McGlaughlin voted in the affirmative; board member Richard Bartnik voted against the measure.
Other board members were absent.
The decision came two weeks after the district administration recommended the appointment of Lifetouch as the photography vendor. But another bidder, Kids at Heart, claimed that Lifetouch had received improper favorable consideration, prompting the board to delay action.
Both Lifetouch and Kids at Heart representatives attended the Monday board meeting. The Lifetouch representative urged the board to follow the earlier recommendation and approve a contract with Lifetouch, arguing that Kids at Heart was confused and misinterpreted the contracting process.
The Kids at Heart representative, meanwhile, asked the board not to seek new proposals. Doing so would be unethical and undermine the earlier sealed-bid process, she said.
She appeared to advocate for the immediate appointment of Kids at Heart as the photography vendor.
The administration has recommended that the board undertake some wording changes in vendor-contract policies — simply to make the process more clear and to help prevent any confusion in the future, district officials said.. Board solicitor Scott Etter said he believes strongly that the administration did nothing wrong in recommending Lifetouch earlier.
- In an action outlined in detail by the Centre Daily Times, the board approved the expansion of the Wonderland Charter School in Ferguson Township. It will grow to include students enrolled through third grade.
Earlier coverage
