The Allegheny Valley School District remains on course to close Colfax Upper Elementary School in Springdale and move grades 4 through 6 to Acmetonia Primary School in Harmar.
But the school board opted Tuesday night for keeping the district's administration office at Acmetonia.
Officials said the change will save the school district between $365,000 and $500,000.
That was the only change made to the school district's $11 million renovation program designed to consolidate district elementary buildings.
The move will mean all of the district's kindergarten through sixth grade classes will be housed at Acmetonia.
The project would leave the district with just two buildings: Acmetonia and the junior-senior high school in Springdale.
If all goes as planned, the Acmetonia expansion would begin in June 2017 and be finished in time for the school year that will begin in late August 2018.
“Certainly, there are things that can't be done during the school year, such as putting new piping in the corridors,” said Terry Thompson of Foreman Architects Engineers. “But the construction area will be mostly separate from the classrooms currently being used.”
The move to close Colfax isn't official yet.
The school board first must hold a public hearing before a formal vote to close the school. Under state law, the district also must get approval from the state Department of Education.
The expansion of Acmetonia calls for 12 new classrooms. It will increase the square footage of Acmetonia from the current 83,000 square feet to a little more than 112,000 square feet.
Thompson told the school board the project also will expand the parking lots at Acmetonia.
If approved by the state, the district could get as much as a $2 million state reimbursement for the expansion.
The only sticking point, said Thompson, could be that Acmetonia was just renovated 12 years ago and state officials prefer a 20-year wait between building renovations.
Thompson added there is a 10-step process the school district needs to undergo, beginning with an upcoming teleconference between state, school district and architectural firm representatives.
Part of the Acmetonia school's courtyard will be used for new classrooms, but officials prefer to keep the large instruction room where school board meetings and other activities will be held.
“Really, the grades (kindergarten) to 3 and the grades 4 to 6 will be in two different levels in the same building,” Thompson said.
George Guido is a freelance writer.
