An option recommended by district administration for replacing Park Forest Middle School has a preliminary cost estimate of up to $100 million, planners told the State College Area School Board on Monday.
As part of its district-wide facilities master plan process, the district and architect Crabtree Rohrbaugh and Associates (CRA) have been exploring three potential options for the future of the 53-year-old middle school in Patton Township.
District administrators on Monday recommended moving forward with an option to construct a new school on an 18-acre district-owned parcel across Valley Vista Drive. The new facility would be approximately 180,000 to 200,000 square feet, with a preliminary cost projection of $89 million to $100 million, CRA’s Jeff Straub said during an overview of the three options.
The board is expected to vote on the recommendation at its March 25 meeting.
“Although additional geotechnical and site evaluation remains to be completed, down-selecting to this site at this time allows the design team to focus on a single project,” Finance and Operations Officer Randy Brown and Physical Plant Director Mike Fisher wrote in a memo.
Other options under consideration are substantial renovations and 60,000 to 100,000 square feet of additions to the existing Park Forest Middle School building, and construction of a new 180,000 to 200,000 square foot building on a district-owned wooded parcel adjacent to the current Park Forest Middle and Elementary sites.
The preliminary cost estimate for renovations and additions is $77-$95 million, and the new construction on School Drive is projected at $90 to $101 million.
Estimates included new construction costs at $325 per square foot; site work; demolition; soft costs such as design, permitting, financing and furniture fixtures and equipment; inflationary escalation; and contingencies. For the option at the current school building, it also includes $228 per square foot for renovations and $5 million for phasing and modular units during construction.
The Valley Vista Drive property has more advantages and fewer drawbacks, Brown told the board.
“We would recommend the Valley Vista Drive property because we believe that has the most potential,” Brown said.
New construction, Brown and Fisher wrote, “allows for flexibility to fully integrate the district vision for educational programming.” It would also occur away from students, meaning phasing wouldn’t be necessary, space would be available for laydown and staging and the project would be more attractive to bidders.
Straub said that although the State High project and two of the district’s three recent elementary school projects have involved renovations and additions to existing buildings, the construction market has changed.
“There is a substantial shift in the construction market right now from when those projects occurred,” he said. “There is quite a lot of work being built right now throughout Pennsylvania, most notably in the K-12 education market, and what we’re seeing is difficulty having contractors show up for additions and renovations projects, because they can be more select right now. So you’re seeing… better cost per square foot for new construction than you’re seeing for additions and renovations.”
A multi-story building would allow for more efficient use of the campus, Brown and Fisher wrote, and the Valley Vista site provides space for fields, play areas, more parking and potential expansion in the future.
The property is also adjacent to Circleville Park, which Brown said provides the opportunity for “some good cooperation” between the district and Centre Region Parks and Recreation.
New utilities and site access would be needed, and land development costs are about $1.6 to $2 million higher than renovating the existing property.
It would also not be a walkable site for students, and about 75 of the school’s current 743 students walk to and from school. Brown and Fisher, however, wrote that “resources needed for transporting current students assigned as walkers [are] less than expected.”
“We’ve already begun working through that,” Brown said.
A tentative timeline would have construction begin in late 2025 and take about two years to complete.
Other Options
New construction on School Drive near the current Park Forest schools has some of the same advantages as the Valley Vista property, but unique challenges.
The property is heavily wooded and “very sloped,” Straub said at a previous meeting. Like Valley Vista, it would need new utilities as well.
School Drive also may need to be relocated or reconfigured for a new school on the parcel.
Renovating the existing Park Forest Middle School and constructing a two-story would eliminate the need to build out site infrastructure, but reconfiguration of an existing building to accommodate the modern educational model,” is a challenge, Straub said.
The existing site provides little space for laydown and staging, and contractors would need to work around students. A renovation and addition project would take two and a half to three years compared to two years for new construction, as well as drawing concerns about contractor interest.
Parking and grading will also be “a substantial challenge,” according to the presentation to the board.
The district has not yet determined the future use of the current Park Forest Middle School property if a new construction option is selected, Brown said.
Public Feedback
Two community forums were held in February, as well as a meeting of the district-wide facilities master plan steering committee. Feedback from those sessions helped inform the administration’s recommendation, Brown said.
“We spent a lot of time not only with community members at those three events, but also studying the comments and feedback that we received,” Brown said. “Much of it is what we expected to receive. There was a lot of good input that helped us to really analyze what people were thinking and prepare for tonight.”
Looking ahead, community forums will next be held at 6 p.m. on April 24 at Gray’s Woods Elementary and April 29 at Park Forest Middle. Tours will be offered at the April 29 meeting beginning at 5 p.m., and those interested should arrive no later than 5:30 p.m.
A steering committee meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on April 18 at Park Forest Middle, with tours available.
