The new design, timeline, and budget for Park Forest Middle School have been approved by the State College Area School District (SCASD) School Board on Feb. 2.
The current timeline has the building being completed in the 2028-2029 school year. Construction will begin sometime in the middle of May this year, with students entering the building after the 2028 winter break, but this timeline could certainly change as construction begins. The budget was also released in the recent school board meeting on Feb. 2. The current budget and costs are expected to be around $130 million.
The updated building will have three stories compared to the current single-story building. The hope is that as kids move up grades, they also move up in the building. This taller design is more cost-effective than a large one-floor school, which takes up more land.
Sixth-grade science teacher Matthew Ammerman said he’s looking forward to upgrading his classroom and the building as a whole.
“I’m excited to be able to teach in a classroom that’s a little more conducive to science teaching with bigger tables, taller tables, more sinks, and more outlets,” Ammerman said.
Ammerman explained he will have an easier time teaching once the transition to the upgraded PFMS is complete. He also mentioned he had a hand in the process of creating a layout for the new building.
“We had a lot of say in the development with the principals,” Ammerman said about teachers’ involvement in the planning.
SCASD Finance and Operations Officer Randy Brown spoke about how he influenced the decision on the budget and his role in the planning process for the building.
“We evaluated multiple options to either renovate at the current site or look at a new site,” Brown said about the decision to have the new school on Little Lion Drive.
No other sites were given much consideration because the land chosen was the only land the district owned.
“The budget is obviously coming in much higher than we would like it to, but it’s a very big school. It needs a lot of work on the site,” Brown said.
Max Bowman, a current eighth grader at Park Forest Middle School, spoke about some notable issues with the current building.
“The buckets are out, and one of my classrooms doesn’t have ceiling tiles,” Bowman said, referring to what students call bucket season at PFMS, a time when buckets are scattered in the hallways to collect water dripping from the ceiling.
As for the future of Park Forest Middle School, Bowman asserts that students will have a better experience with the new building.
The future for a new building looks bright, but there is still a lot of work to be done over the next few years to make sure the project is a success.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on Feb. 25 with an outdated rendering of the new middle school. It was updated on Feb. 27 and now includes the most recently approved rendering.
