SCASD leaders recommend dropping plans to close Corl Street school

During a regular meeting of the State College Area School District Board of Directors on Monday night, the administration recommended that four of the eight options for potential elementary school projects be eliminated — or, in other words, the half that would call for the closure and repurposing of Corl Street Elementary.

The recommendation comes on the heels of a demographic analysis of the district’s attendance areas that was completed by DecisionInsite. The firm’s projects took into account planned residential development, local fertility rates and historical enrollments to determine the potential increase in students that could be expected over the next 10 years.

Based on DecisionInsite’s conservative projections, the district is predicting approximately 300 more elementary students over a decade at roughly a 1 percent annual increase.

“What we do expect is that our enrollment will not decrease,” Randy Brown, SCASD business administrator, told the board.

The administration is recommending a districtwide K-5 enrollment capacity of 3,500 and that future buildings be constructed with capacities between 400 and 550 students.

The project scenarios that would see Corl Street Elementary closed and repurposed are being recommended for elimination because the results would produce both a lower district capacity and larger schools than are desired.

All of the options would see Lemont close and combine with Houserville, which along with Radio Park and Corl Street would undergo some form of construction or renovation.

Much of the board’s discussion of the recommendation revolved around what the district capacity should look like and how many students per building would be optimum.

Some of that may begin to take shape as early as Sept. 26, the next regularly scheduled board meeting.

Two motions are expected to be made — one for a vote on whether or not to consolidate Hourserville and Lemont, and another that will decide if the four scenarios involving the closure of Corl Street are to be formally removed from consideration.

According to Amber Concepcion, board president, among the factors that will be taken into consideration will be ensuring that the district has the capacity it needs to accommodate growth in the student population.

Input from the larger population in general has helped to inform the board’s thinking.

“Community input has helped us get a good sense of what the community values,” Concepcion said.

Elsewhere in the evening, the board authorized the district to continue exploring the possibility of an International Baccalaureate Organization program.

According to IBO’s website, the nonprofit organization offers “four highly respected programs of international education that develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills needed to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world.”

The district will begin its exploration of the program by conducting a feasibility study.

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 10:07 PM with the headline "SCASD leaders recommend dropping plans to close Corl Street school."