SCASD leaning toward building new Park Forest Middle School across Valley Vista Drive

WPSU | By Sydney Roach

Published March 13, 2024 at 1:34 PM EDT

Map showing one of the proposed construction sites for the new Park Forest Middle School. This map shows the proposed site across Valley Vista Drive, which is the option SCASD is leaning toward.

UPDATE 3/26/2024
The State College Area School District Board of Directors unanimously approved a plan on March 25 to build a new middle school across Valley Vista Drive, which is Option 2 in the Park Forest Middle School Site Analysis. A draft of the plan is pictured above.

The State College Area School District is exploring three possibilities for Park Forest Middle School’s future.

The district's board of directors heard an update on the Districtwide Facilities Master Plan during Monday's meeting. One possibility for the Park Forest Middle School, which the district says it’s leaning toward, is to build a new school on district property across Valley Vista Drive from the current school.

The other options are to renovate the current building or to build on a sloped property next to the current location.

Option 1 in the Park Forest Middle School Analysis is to renovate the current building. This could cost up to $95,742,892, according to the architect team.

“We recommend the Valley Vista Drive property because we believe that has the most potential. It has some of the fewest drawbacks," said Randy Brown, the district's Finance and Operations Officer.

Brown said the property across Valley Vista Drive is preferable because the construction would be farther from students, and the area has room for building expansion in the future.

Brown says one challenge with this option is there’s currently no plan for what to do with the current site. He also said there could be transportation issues.

“What happens to the students that are currently walkers? We’ve already begun working through that because this would be a non-walkable site for student transportation purposes," Brown said.

Slide showing option #2 and the advantages and challenges of building the middle school across Valley Vista Drive.

SCASD’s Board of Directors is scheduled to vote on this recommendation on March 25. If approved, SCASD said the project team could concentrate on finishing a single site evaluation and create one building design going forward.

Construction across Valley Vista Drive could cost up to $100,512,766 dollars, according to a preliminary analysis from Crabtree Rohrbaugh, also known as CRA. It is the architect team providing site analysis.

Preliminary cost analysis of renovating the current school.

Preliminary cost analysis of construction across Valley Vista Drive and next to the current location.

The Steering Committee has been hosting community forums to get feedback on the three proposed sites. The next forums will be April 24 at Gray's Wood Elementary and April 29 Park Forest Middle School. SCASD officials say to arrive by 5:30 p.m. to join the tour.

Maps detailing the three possibilities for Park Forest Middle School's renovation or new construction. Crabtree Rohrbaugh (CRA) is the architect team providing site analysis.