The superintendent of Pine-Richland School District is trying to fill time while waiting for the guest of honor to arrive for a tour of a school under construction.

Eventually, he offers to tap dance.

James Manley gets a laugh, and soon Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato arrives to see the progress on the district's crown jewel -- an innovative school that is expected to open in August, housing all of the district's fourth- through sixth-graders.

One thing that makes Pine-Richland Upper Elementary School special is that it's designed around programs as opposed to programs being designed around a building.

"It's fun when you actually build a new building rather than renovate an old building," Dr. Manley said. "You can really let your imagination and creativity go wild."

The school on Bakerstown Road in Richland is a far cry from the institutional look of any local school before it. It looks more like a group of nice condos than an elementary school.

One of the creative focuses was to personalize the large school -- it can hold up to 1,350 students -- to make it feel like a smaller school.

The building will be divided into "neighborhoods" and "houses," four classrooms to a house, and from the outside, each house has a different look.

"They'll be able to identify it from the street," Dr. Manley said of the students. "They'll say, 'See that little burgundy area with the flat roof with yellow windows? That's my house.' " Another house might have white walls, a peaked roof and red windows.

The district started planning for the building four years ago when a task force was formed to examine how Pine-Richland should best deal with its growing population. The district, in its 50th year, has nearly doubled its enrollment in the past 10 years to 4,450.

Moira Singer's son, Brandon, is a 9-year-old fourth-grader who will attend the new school next year. He couldn't go on the tour Wednesday because he was in school, but his mom attended as president of the Wexford Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization. About 40 school officials, teachers and students took the tour.

"Brandon is excited and was here at the ground breaking and couldn't wait to watch the building go up. He's excited about the academic opportunities, the performing art opportunities, about learning keyboarding and technology early," she said. He's also looking forward to meeting youngsters from throughout the district, she said.

Dr. Manley believes the new school will help make the district better. "This gives us the motivation to change because it is a modern, up-to-date, 21^st century school, and it's got to happen throughout the whole district," he said.

"This building serves as a catalyst to get all of us to be thinking how we can raise the bar for higher achievement among our students."