Jul 23, 2024 By Karen Mansfield 3 min read

A new elementary school is in the works for Canon-McMillan School District.

At a special voting meeting on July 10, school directors voted unanimously to approve construction of a new Wylandville Elementary School, with a maximum $50,417,000 building construction cost and a maximum project cost of $76,120,650.

“This is such a big deal. It is the last step in the process the school district has been working toward to get the district to all-day kindergarten,” said school board President Liz Gump. “Additionally, the community is continuing to explode in that area, and we just don’t have enough space.”

A public hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Aug, 7 at the Canon-McMillan Middle School Auditorium.

The new elementary school will be built at the site of the current Wylandville Elementary School in North Strabane Township, which was constructed in 1962.

When the new building is completed, the current school will be demolished and converted into parking areas and a multipurpose athletic field.

The new Wylandville school will address an explosion in enrollment, and provide space for state-of-the-art programs, technology, and physical activities.

The proposed school will be a 149,200-square-foot, three-story building that can house 1,050 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. Each grade level will be housed in its own neighborhood of classrooms, team rooms, and special education rooms. The school will have dedicated spaces for related arts and specialized programming.

Architecture firm HHSDR Architects and Engineers worked with the school district to design the new elementary school after it was determined that renovating the current one was prohibitive because of several deficiencies.

According to a feasibility and facility study, district enrollment in kindergarten through 12th grade has increased about 20% from 2006-07 to this year – from 4,456 to 5,349 students – and enrollment in grades kindergarten through four has increased nearly 21% during that time.

Enrollment in K-4 is expected to increase over the next 10 years, too.

Dr. Scott Chambers, Deputy Superintendent, said Wylandville is overcrowded, and noted portable trailer classrooms were added to provide additional classroom space.

“With the number of housing plans going in behind and around Wylandville, we’ve seen an increase in enrollment and we expect that growth to continue,” said Chambers.

The new facility is part of the district’s plans to implement full-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten.

According to Chambers, the school is designed to comfortably house eight sections of each grade level, with a full-size gym and separate cafeteria.

“We took some of our favorite features from previous projects and incorporated them into this new school,” Chambers said.

Among those features are a shared stage area between the gym and cafeteria, and unique, large-group team rooms (implemented at Canonsburg Middle School) for third and fourth grades. Two large artificial play spaces will be constructed behind the new school, with an area in the center that can be used as outdoor classroom space.

Most recently, the school district completed construction of a new Canonsburg Middle School, which includes administration offices. Renovations and additions have been made to Canon-McMillan’s Memorial Stadium and the high school, respectively, and after the new Wylandville school is built, the district will either close or repurpose Borland Manor Elementary School.

Construction of the new Wylandville school is expected to start in January 2025, with a projected completion date of July 2026.