Opening of new school delayed until next fall

Plans had called for students to move into Scott Primary School in January, but construction is behind schedule

Shaler Area students won’t be moving into the new Scott Primary School until the start of the 2018-19 school year because construction is behind schedule.

The students had been expected to be in the new school in January.

Ground preparation and the construction of a retaining wall were the main holdups, Shaler Area superintendent Sean Aiken said.

The school, which will house grades K-3, is being built on the Scott Avenue site where Rogers Primary stood before it was damaged by fire and closed in April 2015.

When the new school is finished, it will house students from both Rogers Primary and Jeffery Primary. Jeffery Primary had been slated to close after the district did a feasibility/facilities study in 2014.

“We’re working as a district to make this as smooth a transition as possible,” Mr. Aiken said of the plan to merge two student bodies into one school.

“Our students, teachers and bus drivers need time to transition,” he told parents, teachers, administrators and school board members gathered Monday at Shaler Area Elementary School for a town hall meeting about the project.

Dan Kiefer, with Massaro CM Services of O’Hara, showed aerial pictures taken by a drone operated by Matt Lienemann, a 2017 graduate of Shaler Area High School.

The building, Mr. Kiefer said, will look like it has one story from the front, but the site is tiered and a lower level is in the back.

Greer Hayden, president of design firm HHSDR Architects-Engineers, showed the audience slides of the new school under construction.

Security measures include placing the new building 178 feet farther from the curb than the old Rogers building and installing outdoor cameras and lighting.

Entry will be through secured vestibules, and teachers and staff will need key cards to enter and exit.

“Everything is secured at all times,” Mr. Hayden said.

The playground and ballfield are behind the lower level of the two-story structure and both are fenced.

The school has an emergency access road and will have two parking lots, one for staff and buses, and one primarily for parents dropping Sean Aiken, superintendent, Shaler Area off and picking up children.

“We purposely tried to segregate that traffic flow,” Mr. Hayden said.

The Scott school will be compliant with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, but not certified, Mr. Hayden said.

“There is an expense to doing that, so we made it LEED compliant but did not pay for certification,” he said.

Inside the new school, a vibrant color scheme will designate grade levels and classroom function.

Cynthia Foht, principal of Rogers, which has been housed in its own area of Burchfield Primary since the fire in 2015, will be principal of Scott Primary.

She spoke about how parent-teacher organizations from both Rogers and Jeffery have been collaborating on activities to raise money for the new school and bring together families from both schools.

The Jeffery PTO is conducting dance classes for students and adults to raise money for the school. A Trunk or Treat event will be held Oct. 13 in the Jeffery parking lot on Wetzel Road. A car cruise was held recently, and a literacy night is planned.

PTOs from both schools also plan to seek grant money to fund programs at the new site.

A father attending the town hall meeting asked if a redistricting plan was in the works because the new school will have six classrooms available for each grade level, K-3.

“The school is definitely built to hold more than just the two primary schools,” Mr. Aiken said, “but right now there is no redistricting plan.”

Scott Primary will have space for up to 450 students. Once the former Rogers students move from Burchfield Primary to Scott, Burchfield will have extra space as well, he said. The goal is to keep class sizes to 25 students or less. All teachers from both Rogers and Jeffrey will be retained.

Another town hall meeting will held in the winter, perhaps in January.

Construction is expected to be completed in April. When asked if the work might be held up again, Mr. Kiefer said no further delays are expected. “It would have to be something catastrophic.”

Assistant Superintendent Bryan O’Black told the audience how suggestions were sought from the community for names for the new school, and the name was chosen from the responses by a panel of school board members, administrators, teachers, staff and parents.

“We wanted to make sure the identity of our new school went with others in the district,” he said, noting that Burchfield Primary is on Burchfield Road and Marzolf Primary is on Marzolf Road.