On time, and on budget, Lebanon School District’s new junior high school is set to welcome students for the 2024-25 school year.
Superintendent Dr. Nicole Malinoski told LebTown that she and other district staff “just can’t wait to see our students’ faces when they enter that building.”
Construction of the new junior high, located next to Lebanon High School at 1000 S. 8th St., broke ground in September 2022. The $62 million project included the new 145,000-square-foot middle school building and new athletic fields on district-owned land south of Wilhelm Avenue, and it is the centerpiece of district plans to alleviate student overcrowding.
When LebTown spoke with Malinoski earlier this year, she reported a 8.5% rise in district enrollment over the last 10 years.
Read More:
- Fast-growing Lebanon School District gives us a look at middle school progress (April 2023)
- Ground broken for new Lebanon Middle School in plan to reduce overcrowding (September 2022)
- Lebanon School District gives more details on building plans to address overcrowding (October 2021)
- Lebanon School District plans to put $40 million building on high school campus (August 2021)
- Lebanon School District will conduct town hall on building projects (June 2021)
Outside of a few sinkholes which had to be dealt with during construction of the athletic fields off of Wilhelm Avenue, the construction process went smoothly, said Malinoski. The track was finished earlier this year, although not quite in time for the high school’s district-qualifying track athletes to practice on it.
Now, finishing touches are being put on the junior high school – furniture is being delivered, technology equipment installed – and the district plans to take formal ownership of the building at the beginning of August, at which point teachers and other staff would begin occupying their new rooms.
A formal ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Aug. 14, with a public open house scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 10, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
School faculty and district board members have already toured the new facility.
“It is a tremendous addition to our school district and we are just so excited for the students who will be attending,” said Malinoski.
Read More: New Lebanon superintendent Nicole Malinoski shares outlook on district
The junior high school will house the district’s seventh- and eighth-grade students, who are coming from the district’s current middle school on North 8th Street, constructed in 1937 – a building in need of repair, according to Malinoski.
The students will be walking into a “brand-spanking new, state-of-the-art facility,” she said. “We’re very excited to offer it to our students. It’s a brand new learning environment – from the chorus room to the music room to the STEM lab.”
Malinoski said the district will offer STEM classes at the seventh- and eighth-grade level, which they did not have before.
“We just can’t wait to see our students faces when they enter that building.”
As previously reported by LebTown, Lebanon School District will see a few schedule changes this fall, such as shifting the elementary school schedule later by 20 minutes each day and shifting the high school schedule back by 10 minutes. The schedule for the new Lebanon Junior High and the renamed Lebanon Intermediate School have also seen their start times pushed back, 30 minutes and 25 minutes respectively.
Malinoski said that after the initial surprise of the schedule change announced for this fall, she hasn’t heard a lot of feedback about it.
Malinoski emphasized that this schedule isn’t viewed as a permanent solution for the district, adding that the district would love to get its high school students in last, but with the CTC schedule starting at 8 a.m., it’s just not possible currently. Malinoski noted that recent changes to the PA School Code through HB 1507 will allow greater flexibility in scheduling. That bill changed the instructional requirement from a strict 180 days to either 180 days or 990 secondary and 900 elementary hours.
Next up in terms of capital projects, the district will turn its attention to the former Lebanon Middle School – the new Lebanon Intermediate School – on North 8th Street. For now, the building will have just sixth-graders, but eventually also fifth-graders, once work is done.
Last week, Lebanon’s school board approved the administration to solicit bids for the plan prepared by the construction management team. Included as optional bid items in that proposal – meaning that the district will decide later if they should be added to the project once all the numbers are received – are potential renovations to Lebanon Alumni Stadium.
The total cost of renovating the North 8th Street school building was estimated at $37.3 million, with another $7.6 million in costs scoped out for optional overhauls to the fieldhouse, stadium, and field.
Malinoski said that bids for that project will go out shortly and, if everything goes as planned, students could be occupying the renovated building by August 2026, with August 2027 as the date if the optimal timeline isn’t achieved (Malinoski said district administration had promised school staff that it won’t be a mid-year move).
Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed state budget for 2024-25 includes an $872 million fund for adequacy investment for basic education, which Malinoski said could potentially see up to $10 million directed to district coffers. Once the budget is passed, the district will know what financial situation it is facing, said Malinoski.
“We don’t want to place all that debt onto our taxpayers, so we are trying to be fiscally responsible with our decision-making,” she said.
Also in front of the board currently is a proposed update to the district’s comprehensive plan, available now for public feedback and set to be ratified by the board in August.
“We’re excited about the priorities in the plan: improving student attendance, improving core student achievement, creating a culture of high expectations, and focusing on family and student engagement,” said Malinoski.
The strategic plan includes with it a new mission statement for the district – (“Inspiring Minds, Enriching Lives, Shaping Futures”) – and was shaped by research conducted this spring on the ideal “Portrait of a Cedar”/”Portrait of a Graduate,” which landed on the following qualities: Leader, Creative, Adaptable, Empathetic, Communicator, Critical Thinker, and Personally Responsible. The plan includes a goal of incorporating lessons tied to these qualities across district curriculum by the end of the 2026-27 school year.
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