Young scholars of Central Pennsylvania says growth, community needs driving advances

Changes could be coming to Young Scholars of Central Pennsylvania Charter School.

CEO Levent Kaya said expansion of the school’s parking lot could be under construction as early as November.

But he hopes it won’t stop there. The goal is to also expand the building and its educational efforts in the future.

The expansions come on the heels of growth at the school. And it’s a trend that other local charter schools are also experiencing.

“We have wonderful charter schools in Centre County,” Kaya said. “Each charter school is unique in its mission and methods of delivery. We feel like we complement each other by offering different options to the parents and students.”

Charter growth

There are four charter schools in Centre County, with at least three that are seeing growth in student enrollment.

Centre Learning Community Charter School, 2643 W. College Ave., was founded in 1998.

Co-founder Mark Toci said the school started with 48 students, but this year and last year had 100 students from fifth to eighth grade.

“We found that for our purposes and instructional goals, it works better with about 100 students,” Toci said.

Wonderland Charter School, 2112 Sandy Drive, was started in 1997, but didn’t open until September 1999 with 27 students.

Administration said that last year, it grew to 87 students. This year there are 101 students enrolled from kindergarten to fifth grade.

Nittany Valley Charter School, 1612 Norma St., State College, could not be reached for comment.

Young Scholars was authorized by State College Area School District in January of 2005.

“Long before the school opening, our founding board members identified the need for a school that provided a global environment for American-born children and exposed foreign-born children to American culture,” Kaya said. “Due to the multicultural environment that Penn State creates in State College, the appeal of schooling that met these two constituents’ needs was clear. Young Scholars was envisioned and was founded with this mission.”

Young Scholars opened its doors in the 2005-06 school year as a kindergarten to fifth-grade school with 86 students and 14 staff members. It now services about 350 kindergarten to eighth graders with 49 employees.

“Our school continues to grow since our inception,” Kaya said. “We started as a (kindergarten to fifth grade) school and added a grade each year through 2009. Since then we have accommodated the increased demand as much as we can within the restrictions of our facility.”

And Kaya said that growth is part of the reason for their expansion.

Parking plan

Submissions to expand the parking lot at Young Scholars, 1530 Westerly Parkway, were submitted to Ferguson Township on June 16.

Community planner Lindsay Schoch said the township came back to the school with questions regarding “minor administrative issues,” and the school resubmitted its proposal Aug. 18.

According to a report from the township, the submission by Stahl Sheaffer Engineering proposed a parking lot addition that would add 20 parking spaces, as well as widen the access driveway to better accommodate bus and vehicle traffic.

That would give the school a total of 60 spaces, including three handicapped-accessible parking spaces, Kaya said.

Stormwater management and erosion and sedimentation control plans also have been developed.

Schoch said the plan is to bring the idea back to the planning commission at its meeting Sept. 28.

If the planning commission approves the proposal, the parking lot plan would then go to the board of supervisors meeting for approval Oct. 19. And if approved, it would take about two weeks to organize before construction begins.

Kaya said the project could take about three weeks to complete, and cost the school more than $45,000. The project proposal was one approved by the Young Scholars school board.

“We think that adding parking spots will help improve traffic flow at the school,” Kaya said. “There might be some burden during the construction of the parking expansion, but contingency plans have been considered to avoid significant disruptions to normal traffic flow in the vicinity of the school. All construction will take place on our property so we think this burden will be minimal.”

YSCP future

Kaya said the goal for Young Scholars is to continue its growth.

“Young Scholars continues to grow in numbers and in the effect it makes in Centre County and across the state,” Kaya said. “We see several of our practices modeled locally, which makes us proud and happy because we feel these are the necessary things to do. We envision ourselves becoming a (kindergarten to 12th grade) school that prepares our students for a successful future in accordance with our mission across all grade levels.”

In order to get to that step, however, the charter would need to apply through the state and then get approval from its authorizer, the State College Area School District.

“We hear from our parents ... that there is a big need for a small-sized public high school in State College,” Kaya said. “Part of this demand is for individual students’ needs and where they see themselves comfortable. The other part is from parents who do not reside in State College and who look for a great high school for their students.”

With more grades, it creates the potential for more students, which could lead to the need for more space.

“We are considering the feasibility of a few options for our existing facility,” Kaya said, but didn’t get into the details. “There is a (cap) number of students, which we will eventually reach. Our goal is to expand such that we can continue to provide our excellent education model.”

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 9:01 PM with the headline "Young scholars of Central Pennsylvania says growth, community needs driving advances."