Bellefonte school district hears input on $46 million new elementary building plans

Correction: This article was updated to correct the gross total square footage of the proposed elementary school. Earlier versions reported the building’s net total square footage.

Bellefonte Area School District held a community listening session Thursday night on the new elementary school, the most recent attempt to get community input on the long-planned project.

The project to build a new elementary school and retire the Bellefonte Elementary building has been underway since 2016. Last renovated in the 1960s, Bellefonte Elementary on West Linn Street no longer meets the needs of students and is not ADA compliant. Although renovations were once on the table, the building is part of the historic district, presenting costly challenges to that option.

KCBA principal architect Michael Kelly and SiteLogIQ vice president Damion Spahr presented at Thursday’s meeting, taking questions and comments from an audience of almost 50 people.

The design process for the new building is expected to take about a year, with a final project complete date in summer 2026. The only current students that will be in the new building is this year’s kindergarten class, who would move into the building for their eventual fifth grade year. Although the building’s capacity will be for 650 students, the district intends to keep class sizes small.

Currently, KCBA architects estimates the building will be 95,684 square feet and cost about $46 million. A final cost won’t be available until the design process has finished and construction bids are finalized, the district’s fiscal director Ken Bean said.

After geological surveys, the district has seemingly settled on 107.6 acres of land behind the Bellefonte Area High School for the new building. The land was purchased for $4.5 million in 2011.

Although there is room for community input, Bean said the end result will likely look similar to the plans KCBA has developed. Those plans include 41 classrooms, a STEM lab, cafeteria, gym and 10 administrative rooms.

“We have a general layout of what we think we’d like to do on the land,” Bean said. “There’s a rough floor plan, at least they can get an idea of what it might look like out there, which way the building faces, that type of stuff.”

During the meeting, Bean explained the budget impacts of the building, including the $3 million set aside for the project and the plan to restructure debt payments, a concept similar to remortgaging a house. Between bond sales, debt payments and district savings, Bean said the new building should not cause a raise in taxes.

Safety was a high priority for parents and community members in the audience, who asked for information on building safety measures and additional road entrances or exits to the property in case of an emergency. Several parents also stressed the need for a welcoming environment for students, a building students and parents would be proud to enter.

Many comments from the public were focused not only on the student experience but the building’s affects on the community, including availability for community meetings and impact on local roads. Part of the $46 million estimated costs for the school includes improvements to Airport and Governor roads, which surround the proposed school.

The board approved a traffic study for the future elementary school during its Tuesday meeting. The $69,025 study will look at how traffic will be impacted by the school and if additional stoplights or road construction is needed.

The board also approved a $931,500 contract with SiteLogIQ for construction management services for the project— making the district total spent on architects and consultants more than $1 million since 2016.

Several community members asked for the possible inclusion of a swimming pool, citing the lack of an indoor pool for swim teams to practice in. Bellefonte High School’s swim team does not have a pool, busing to Tyrone Community pool for practice and hosting their home swim meets at State High. Kelly said a pool would likely be impossible in the current building project due to costs but the board committed to looking into efforts to sponsor or support a community pool outside the district.

Th major project also brought up talk of equity among the district’s elementary buildings, with some community members noting that both Pleasant Gap and Benner Elementary buildings have not been updated since the 1980s. The district’s previous options presented in 2021 included closing Benner Elementary and combining it with the new building or doing minor renovations on Benner, Marion-Walker and Pleasant Gap.

Superintendent Tammie Burnaford said that although all buildings do need updating at some level, Bellefonte Elementary is the oldest and in the most need. Decisions on if students from other district elementary schools will move to the new building has yet to be determined.

The board and administration plans to hold more listening sessions throughout the process, hearing details on what students, teachers and community members would like to see in the building. The design process will continue with updates at the board of directors meetings.

This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 3:32 PM.