Dible closing will cause Penn Hills elementary students to relocate

The Penn Hills school board Monday unanimously approved moving students out of Dible Elementary School this fall so it can be torn down and replaced with a new, 1,500-student "elementary center."

The plan calls for students in kindergarten through third grade at Dible to move to Penn Hebron Elementary, which would become a K-4 school for two years, or until the elementary center opens.

Penn Hebron currently has 680 students enrolled in grades four and five. Next year, it will have an estimated 777 students in grades K-4, including all the district's fourth-graders.

"The original (student) population of Penn Hebron when we first made the switch to fourth and fifth grades was 790, so we will have the necessary room to accommodate the K-4 population," said spokeswoman Teresita Kolenchak.

The district's fifth-graders will move out of Penn Hebron and into Linton Middle School. Ninth-graders will move out of Linton and into the high school.

The changes are part of a district-wide building reconfiguration plan requiring $130 million in construction. The school district expects to save $5 million each year by closing the district's four grade schools after the elementary center opens on the Dible site along Jefferson Road, and it will use that money to pay off construction bonds.

The project, seen as a way to replace aging buildings while revitalizing the community, includes razing the district's headquarters for a new high school. The board last month approved using a portion of Linton -- which will undergo extensive renovations -- for administrative offices.

The work should be complete by the start of the 2012-13 school year, according to Richard Liberto, the district's director of business affairs.

School board President Joseph Bailey said while the plan to relocate students during the construction has raised concerns among parents, school officials believe it will create the fewest number of problems.

"We understand it can be frustrating for parents, and that moving kids around to different buildings is not an ideal situation, but this is temporary," he said.

Bailey said district officials had considered buying or renting trailers to avoid moving students around, but did not think that made sense economically because the district already has ample room for students in its buildings.