CRESSON — The Penn Cambria School District is seeking donations to fund its vision for nearly $10 million in needed athletic facility upgrades.

According to a press release, the district is currently in the midst of a $49 million renovation project and will be at its $55 million borrowing capacity as a result of a consolidation project to create a centralized campus in Cresson.

The district has no current plans to fund any of the athletic upgrades, which are divided into a phased approach, according to the release.

Phase 1, which is included in the consolidation project, includes parking improvements that would serve both the new elementary addition on the north side of the high school and the athletic stadium and work to demolish the district’s old concession stand.

Phase 2, which costs about $4.6 million with contingencies and soft costs, involves work to replace the track and playing surface, add lighting improvements, new bleachers and stormwater management upgrades.

Phase 3, totaling about $1.1 million, includes adding new asphalt, ticketing, restrooms and concessions.

Phase 4 work, estimated at about $3 million, includes renovating the athletic fieldhouse, locker rooms, training room and support spaces. It also includes a new entrance gateway and concrete plaza.

Superintendent Jamie Hartline said the district’s track team does not have home track meets at Penn Cambria because its facilities are “lacking.”

Both the district’s boys’ soccer program and football team earned the right to play home playoff games late last season but were unable to because PIAA regulations state that in order to host a game, the district has to have a turf field, which Penn Cambria does not have, Hartline said.

The Mainline Panther youth organization has requested to use the district’s facility before, but Penn Cambria had to deny those opportunities for its elementary students because of the wear and tear on the grass field surface, Hartline said.

Those “missed opportunities” led Hartline to discuss the district’s need for athletic facility improvements with school board members and representatives from Core Architects in November.

Core Architects offered to develop a master plan for the district at no cost, Hartline said, noting he gave an outline of the planned phases to school board members at the April 15 meeting.

“This is a grand master plan that could take five or even 30 years to complete. Just because it is presented does not mean that it is going to happen,” Hartline said at the meeting.

“However, one thing that I do believe is that any successful entrepreneur, organization or facility all start with a vision and that is exactly what we are doing here,” he said. “It is not a commitment to spend school district funds. It is simply something that we have to work forward to.”

On Tuesday, Hartline said the district could pull out “smaller chunks” from each phase and complete the work as funding becomes available.

For example, once the district receives the estimated $265,000 to repair its running track, it can move forward with making those repairs, Hartline said, adding the new bleachers under phase 2 will cost about $100,000.

“As we get people interested in contributing to this project, we can kind of get those different pieces of each phase to see where we can gradually do our improvements,” he said.

To date, the district has secured $220,000 in funding from four donors: Paul and Maureen Calandra, $100,000; Rosebud Mining, $100,000; Leeward Energy, $10,000; and Randy and Kim Beers, $10,000.

“We’re very fortunate and very appreciative for those individuals,” Hartline said.

According to Hartline, anyone who wishes to donate to Penn Cambria’s vision for athletic facility upgrades can contact the athletic office or the administrative office at 814-886-8121.