School options considered
EVANS CITY — The Seneca Valley School District's oldest school building is deteriorating, and district officials are considering what is to be done with it.
That was the report from borough council President Lee Dyer, who said at Monday night's council meeting that he recently received a call from school district officials regarding the building.
Built in 1939 as a high school, the large building now serves students in kindergarten through sixth grade as an elementary and middle school.
Dyer said just more than 1,400 students are enrolled at the school, 140 from the borough.
In a recent conversation, Dyer learned that the school “has serious deterioration issues.”
He said district officials presented a handful of options, including:
- Do nothing other than annual maintenance
- Replace the building at a cost of more than $40 million
- Build a new school on property the district owns on Ehrman Road
- Change the student population to send some of the upper-grade students to the new school.
“They said they absolutely have not decided which of those options they are going to follow,” Dyer said.
He expressed the council's interest in keeping the school in Evans City, and said the district officials asked what the council would do with the building if the district donated the entire property to the borough.
“We obviously prefer a tax-producing building for the borough, but we'll wait and watch and see,” Dyer said.
He mentioned that the Mars School District recently sold a school building for $800,000, but said the issue is much too preliminary for any speculations to be made.
He said the council would hate to see the school leave the borough.
“We're obviously saddened (at the prospect of losing the school),” Dyer said. “That's been a centerpiece for Evans City forever.”
No Seneca Valley School District officials attended the council meeting.
