State College Area School District has narrowed the focus for the future of Park Forest Middle School.
The school board on Monday unanimously approved an 18-acre, district-owned parcel off of Valley Vista Drive, across from the current campus, as the site for construction of a new building that will replace the 53-year-old middle school in Patton Township.
After months of conversation, presentations and community forums, there was little discussion among board members on Monday night before approving the recommendation from district administrators.
The Valley Vista Drive site was among three options under consideration, along with renovations and expansion of the existing school and construction of a new building on a wooded parcel on School Drive adjacent to the current Park Forest Middle and Elementary sites.
Preliminary cost projections for the new 180,000 to 200,000-square-foot school are pegged at $89 million to $100 million, Jeff Straub, of architectural consultant Crabtree Rohrbaugh and Associates, told the school board on March 11.
Renovations and additions to the existing building were estimated at $77 to $95 million, and the new construction on School Drive was projected at $90 to $101 million.
The Valley Vista Drive property has more advantages and fewer drawbacks, Randy Brown, district finance and operations officer, previously said.
Brown and physical plant director Mike Fisher wrote in a memo to Superintendent Curtis Johnson that a new building “allows fot the for flexibility to fully integrate the district vision for educational programming,” providing “natural light, spaces that are well-suited and appropriately sized for instructional plan.”
The Valley Vista property would allow construction to occur remotely from students, administrators said, allowing for a better construction schedule, no need for phasing around students or use of modular units, space for laydown and staging, fewer unknown circumstances than are associated with renovation projects and a more attractive project for potential bidders.
“There is quite a lot of work being built right now throughout Pennsylvania, most notably in the K-12 education market, and what we’re seeing is difficulty having contractors show up for additions and renovations projects, because they can be more select right now,” Straub said earlier this month. “So you’re seeing… better cost per square foot for new construction than you’re seeing for additions and renovations.”
A multi-story building, Brown and Fisher wrote, would also “compress the building footprint, allowing for more efficient use of the campus,” and space for future expansion. The Valley Vista site offers the opportunity for improved field and parking facilities and “possible opportunities for cooperative use with Centre Region Parks and Recreation Authority,” which operates nearby Circleville Park.
Students would no longer be able to walk to school at the new building, and about 75 of the school’s current 743 students walk to and from school. Brown and Fisher, however, wrote that “resources needed for transporting current students assigned as walkers [are] less than expected.”
Renovating the existing Park Forest Middle School and constructing a two-story would eliminate the need to build out site infrastructure, but reconfiguration of an existing building to accommodate the modern educational model,” is a challenge, Straub previously said.
Construction on the School Drive property, which is heavily wooded and “very sloped,” would be more challenging than the Valley Vista site, Straub said. School Drive also might have to be relocated or reconfigured for a new school on the parcel.
A tentative timeline would have construction at the Valley Vista property begin in late 2025 and take about two years to complete.
Future use of the existing Park Forest Middle School building has not yet been determined, and a recommendation may emerge from the ongoing District-wide Facilities Master Plan (DWFMP) process.
Community forums on the DWFMP will next be held at 6 p.m. on April 24 at Gray’s Woods Elementary and April 29 at Park Forest Middle. Tours will be offered at the April 29 meeting beginning at 5 p.m., and those interested should arrive no later than 5:30 p.m.
A DWFMP steering committee meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on April 18 at Park Forest Middle, with tours available.
