CRESSON — Penn Cambria School District officials are expected to vote in mid-October to approve a $31.5 million construction project that would include a two-story elementary school addition to the current high school, thus allowing the district to eventually consolidate all operations to the Penn Cambria High School campus.

On Tuesday, the school board of directors held an Act 34 hearing to show rendered versions of the elementary addition to the public and explain how the project will be financed, district Solicitor Ron Repak said.

The addition includes nine classrooms that wrap around a gymnasium on the first floor. Locker rooms, a kitchen, a cafeteria, bathrooms and office spaces are also part of the first-floor plans. The second floor features 14 additional classrooms, a life skills room, a music room and an art room.

The addition will be located in the back of the high school — where a parking lot currently is — and it will have a separate entrance from the high school, Superintendent Jamie Hartline said.

Under the district’s restructuring plan, dubbed option 12A, the intermediate school in Lilly and the middle school in Gallitzin will eventually be closed, Hartline said, noting the addition is expected to be built in time for the 2027-28 school year.

By then, the pre-primary school will house pre-K through first grade, the new addition will house students in second through sixth grades and the high school will house grades seven through 12, Hartline said.

The vision began in November 2022 when Penn Cambria hired Core Architects to perform a districtwide feasibility study, which provided an overview of the district’s geography and population demographics, a comprehensive evaluation of each building’s physical condition and educational programs and an analysis of construction options.

Core Architects and SitelogiQ, the construction manager, presented the study’s results to the school board in the fourth quarter of 2023. The study determined the district would save money by closing its schools in Lilly and Gallitzin and by building the elementary addition.

Once the work is complete and the other buildings are closed, it’s estimated that the district will indirectly save about $2.4 million from operational efficiencies, according to the Act 34 presentation information.

Business administrator Jill Francisco said that figure will include a decrease in staff through attrition. But the potential savings the district would receive will be offset by other renovation projects the district plans to pursue, she said.

That includes work to enlarge the high school’s cafeteria and other renovation projects at the pre-

primary school; all of which are planned as part of option 12A, Francisco said.

According to the Act 34 information, the hard cost for new construction minus site work is $16.4 million. The total cost for new construction and renovations, site work and soft costs for the elementary addition is nearly $31.5 million.

Francisco said the total cost of all the district’s planned projects is about $51.5 million.

To finance the $31.5 million project, the district is “essentially going to use general obligation bonds with the wrap-around structure,” Francisco said.

Penn Cambria already took out a 2025 bond for about $9.9 million using a wrap-around structure to a previous bond, Francisco said. The district will consider using the same structure for other bonds that will be issued in 2026 and 2027 for $17.8 million and $3 million respectively, she said.

All of the bonds will help finance the project, she said.

Repak said the district is required to wait 30 days to allow for public comment before the board can approve bids for the elementary addition and high school renovations.

Repak said the 30-day period ends Thursday, Oct. 16. The school board’s next regular session meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 21. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the high school’s library.

To view the Act 34 presentation and submit feedback on the project, visit the “district consolidation project” tab on the district’s website, www.pcam.org.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.