Will Bellefonte close elementary schools after new building opens? ‘Decision day’ looms
After breaking ground on a new elementary school over the summer, the Bellefonte Area School District is nearly ready to finalize which existing school or schools will close.
The district’s school board will deliberate and vote at its Jan. 21 meeting to potentially close elementary school buildings. The long-anticipated decision arrives following required meetings, hearings and studies as the district constructs a new $55.3 million elementary school.
Jon Guizar, the school board president, said the upcoming “decision day” vote centers on only building closures. The district will address concerns surrounding enrollment and changes to students’ assigned schools at a later time.
“I want to remind everyone that this process is and continues to be primarily about building closure,” Guizar said. “What students will go where is not really the consideration for this decision. That’s a decision that will be made in 2026. We won’t know that information until 2026 anyway, so it doesn’t make much sense to cloud the issue with that until we have a better idea of what students we have and what school buildings we have left.”
Bellefonte Elementary, the district’s oldest school, has long been considered the school most likely to close due to the costly and extensive repairs needed on its aging infrastructure. The district’s efforts to fund and construct a new elementary school began, at least in part, due to Bellefonte Elementary’s structural failings and mounting costs.
Last fall, Bellefonte Area School District received a briefing from SiteLogIQ, its construction management firm, on the current state of its elementary schools and an evaluation of their needed repairs. The district’s four elementary schools were evaluated on facility condition index scores ranging from 0 to 100%, with a higher score representing the most dire need of renovations or closure, as calculated by dividing the cost of repairs by the cost of replacing the building entirely.
The firm also offered a number between 1 and 100 rating the severity and potential cost of repairs. A higher SiteLogIQ score indicates more renovations or repairs are needed.
In that study, Bellefonte Area School District’s elementary schools received the following scores:
- Bellefonte Elementary — 86.1% FCI score and 99 SiteLogIQ
- Benner Elementary — 77.4% FCI score and 89 SiteLogIQ
- Pleasant Gap Elementary — 72.2% FCI score and 83 SiteLogIQ
- Marion Walker Elementary — 27.8% FCI score and 32 SiteLogIQ
Bellefonte Elementary would require significant upgrades to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, including proper restrooms and railing systems. Should the building continue operating, it would also require new HVAC systems, plumbing, sewer and electrical upgrades, extensive foundation and masonry work, a fire suppression system, compliant fire alarms and more. Previous estimates suggest maintaining the building, which was last renovated in the 1960s, would cost between $18 and $23 million, while building new on the site would run at least $32 million.
Benner Elementary needs substantial ADA upgrades and improvements to its fire suppression and HVAC systems. Long-term maintenance is expected to cost the district between $6.1 and $7.2 million over the next decade, with new construction costing at least $10 million.
Pleasant Gap Elementary would require improvements to its driveways, parking lots and walkways, plus new railing systems and plumbing upgrades. Repair costs would fetch around $1.3 to $1.7 million, but building new on the site would cost nearly $20 million, according to estimates.
Marion Walker Elementary, renovated in 2007, needs minor changes to some doorways and restrooms to comply with ADA standards. Site improvements could include the addition of a gymnasium and the removal of modular classrooms, with long-term maintenance costs ranging between $9 and $10 million and a total rebuild costing at least $14 million.
Guizar said infrastructure across the district’s elementary schools — and the educational needs of its students and faculty — are the key focuses at this point in the process.
“This is, again, about the condition of our buildings,” the school board president said. “These discussions have been going on for many years, if not decades, now. I think we’re finally in a good place that we’re making positive changes and prepared to do something about it.”
Benner Township supervisor Kathy Evey, who served as a Bellefonte school board member from 1991 to 1999 and chairs the Win4Bellefonte community group, spoke against a potential vote to close more than one elementary school.
“To close Benner [Elementary], at this time, is completely absurd,” she said. “The township is a bubble about to burst with new development, thus more student population.”
During public comment, Evey said the district should consider closing only Bellefonte Elementary and keeping the other three existing schools in operation. Under her suggestion, students in kindergarten through the third grade would remain at Benner, Pleasant Gap and Marion Walker elementary schools, while all of the district’s fourth and fifth-grade students would study at the new elementary school building.
“There’s already integrated learning between grades four and five across our elementary schools, so this move would be a two-fold advantage to students to get to know each other, learn together and make the adjustment to the middle school easier,” Evey said. “All of these grades would have the benefit of the new building, so every elementary student in the district would get the benefit of new technology and the new concepts and amenities that would be in the new building.”
The district’s new elementary school will span 98,000 square feet and accommodate around 750 students. Key features include outdoor learning spaces, a STEM lab and a media center. Proposed site plans for the project showed room for athletic fields on the 107.6-acre property behind Bellefonte Area High School.
Construction on the new school is expected to finish in the summer of 2026.
In compliance with its code, the district will hold additional hearings to determine the future purpose of any closed school buildings.
The school board’s next public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21, inside Bellefonte Area Middle School’s cafeteria. Though the public can’t attend remotely, the C-Net will record the meeting and post it online.
Reporter Keely Doll contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 2:15 PM.
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