The Montour School District expects to consolidate its elementary schools into a building on its high school campus that will open in fall 2017, a school board member said.
“It's going to be state-of-the-art. There's a lot of open concepts in there,” school board member Scott Suess said.
Before 2012, the district had three elementary schools, all of which enrolled kindergarten through fourth-grade students.
Ingram Elementary School in the Ingram closed before the 2012-13 school year, and grades at the two other elementary schools in Robinson were reconfigured: Forest Grove Elementary School enrolled only kindergarten through second-graders and Burkett Elementary School enrolled only third- and fourth-graders.
The impetus, according to school officials, was to have elementary students be taught the same curriculum and to improve academic performance, because Ingram's state test scores lagged at least 20 percent below those of Burkett, a top-performing school in Allegheny County.
The district plans to start from scratch with a new elementary school on the campus of the high school on Clever Road in Robinson. It will house all elementary students, as well as the free preschool program that the school district started this year at Burkett, Suess said.
Money was a factor in the decision, officials said.
If the elementary schools were to be renovated, they would need major electrical, plumbing, code and accessibility upgrades, said Joseph S. Spagnuolo, director of architecture at Ross-based Architectural Innovations LLC, which is working on the project.
“Phased construction, which is more expensive and takes longer, would be required so that school could continue during renovations,” he said.
The school will cost between $50 million and $55 million, which will be paid for from capital reserves and a bond issue for about $48 million, Suess said.
Robinson resident Lauren Baughman, whose daughter is in third grade and son is in pre-kindergarten at Burkett Elementary School, said she initially opposed the elementary school change but supports it because of the technology, STEAM curriculum, layout and close proximity to her home the school will offer.
“(I'm) very excited for the opportunity,” said Baughman, president of the Montour Elementary Parent-Teacher Association, which was formed from a merger of the Burkett and Forest Grove PTAs in 2012.
Montour's elementary schools aren't in deplorable condition, but there is “definitely room for improvement,” said Baughman, 35.
Ground was broken for the new elementary school last summer. It will be constructed on the high school's former athletic practice fields, across from the high school's stadium, Suess said.
The new school will provide elementary students with access to the high school's planetarium, pool, athletic fields, auditorium and athletic center.
The school will have a strong focus on science, technology, engineering, arts and math, or STEAM, curricula, Suess said.
It also will feature green design, which refers to the solar orientation, geometric proportions, window and skylight size and placement and high-efficiency mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, Spagnuolo said. O'Hara-based Massaro Corp. is the project manager.
Burkett was built in 1950 and was renovated in 1976 and 2008, Spagnuolo said. Forest Grove was built in 1972 and renovated in 1993.
Ingram, which was built in 1915 and renovated several times, was repurposed as a community resource center in 2012.
The school district has not decided what it will do with Burkett and Forest Grove after they are vacant by 2017, Suess said.
“I think it's really up to discussion right now as to what's going to happen with that,” said Suess, who said that school and Robinson officials have discussed turning Burkett into a recreation center.
Tory N. Parrish is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-380-5662 or tparrish@tribweb.com.
