Today’s soggy patch of dirt is tomorrow’s new school.

On the rain-soaked afternoon of Jan. 9, Bethel Park School District officials hosted a groundbreaking for a a $133 million elementary center to replace the five buildings now in operation.

Despite the weather, members of the community packed the space under a voluminous canopy to witness the occasion on district property that includes Neil Armstrong Middle School. Among them were quite a few younger guests.

“Most importantly, we have our students,” district Superintendent James Walsh said. “And we’re going to let them make the first dig into the ground, because the kids who are here today will be the ones who walk into that school in 2026, when we cut the ribbon.”

With that, several groups of people donned hardhats and grabbed shovels to pose for a series of photographs in what represents the first step in bringing the vision for a new school to fruition.

“This is the culmination of many years of planning,” Barry Christenson, Bethel Park School Board president, said. “What we’re setting out to do today is driven by our vision to deliver excellence in 21st-century education.”

In 2019, the district embarked on a comprehensive demographic analysis, facilities master plan and feasibility study. The findings included an assessment of the conditions of Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Memorial and William Penn elementary schools:

“All elementary facilities require significant capital improvements with minimal opportunity to insert newer educational programming opportunities for today and in the future.”

Advantages cited

Another area of concern involved lack of equity among the buildings, according to information presented at a July school board meeting:

“Some of the schools are experiencing significant enrollment numbers per classroom, while other elementary schools show lesser numbers.”

Following consideration of three options for addressing future needs across the district, the school board chose to construct a new elementary center for all students in kindergarten through fifth grade, and to renovate Independence Middle School to accommodate those in sixth through eighth grades. Neil Armstrong will close.

According to the district, advantages of the new elementary setup include ensuring a consistent curriculum and equal class sizes for all grades, while providing more opportunities for staff members to collaborate and share resources, and eliminating travel between buildings for special-subject teachers.

When it opens, the three-story, 269,000-square-foot elementary school will house about 1,800 students. The design provides for a degree of separation between younger and older students, with a pair each of cafeterias, gymnasiums and playgrounds.

“This school, when it’s done, will be something that no one else has, and that is really attributable to the administration’s attention to detail, how they envisioned bringing all of these schools’ students together in one environment,” Daniel Engan, president of Mt. Lebanon-based project architect DRAW Collective, said. “I think the end product is going to be really a result of what the teachers and the staff put into the planning process.”

Access to the building will be from Kings School Road, instead of Murray Avenue, the longtime link to Neil Armstrong.

Financial matters

The project’s financing primarily is through a 30-year general obligation bond issued last year. A document presented by the district in July shows projected impacts on the real estate tax rate of .76 mills for two fiscal years starting in 2025, and .77 mills for 2027-28.

“The school district does anticipate a certain level of savings as a result of operational and energy efficiencies garnered from the project,” the document states, estimated at $3.27 million, or the equivalent of 1.25 mills.

Bethel Park School District’s real estate tax rate for 2023-24 is 24.5526 mills, meaning $3,673.07 would be owed on property assessed at the local median of $149,600.

The district will pay varying amounts of debt service to cover the bond issue’s principal and interest through 2053, peaking at amounts in the $13.95 million range from 2041-52.

In December, the district awarded contracts to low bidders for various facets of work on the elementary school. According to information compiled by DRAW Collective, the contract amounts are:

• Rycon Construction Inc., Strip District, general construction, $76.760 million

• Hranec Sheet Metal Inc., Uniontown, heating-ventilation-air conditioning construction, $11.125 million

• Enders Plumbing and Heating Co., West Kittanning, plumbing construction, $5.159 million

• Interstate Fire Protection Co. Inc., Valencia, fire protection construction, $1.295 million

• Merit Electrical Group Inc., Oakmont, electrical construction, $13.328 million

• Bova Corp., Valencia, food service equipment construction, $1.241 million

With the start of construction, anyone who’s interested can check the progress.

“We’re going to have a time-lapse camera following this project,” Walsh said, positioned on Neil Armstrong’s roof. “We’ll get that linked out to the community so you can watch this process evolve over the next 36 months.”

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