The Penn Hills School Board on Tuesday unanimously approved a $130 million bond issue to fund construction of a new high school and an elementary center.

Three board members -- Carolyn Faggioli, Catherine Mowry and Erin Vecchio -- voiced opposition to the plan to consolidate the district's four elementary schools into a single center.

They voted in favor of the bond issue, but against a resolution to submit plans for the elementary center to the state. The motion to move forward on the elementary center passed with five votes. Board member Don Kuhn abstained.

The new high school will be built on the site of the current high school and adjacent Roberts Elementary School, which is closed and is used for district administration offices.

The elementary center for about 1,600 students will be built on the site of the current Dible Elementary on Jefferson Road. Both projects are scheduled for completion in fall 2012.

The $130 million debt incurred by the school district will be repaid over 30 years. Business Manager Richard Liberto said that annual savings from consolidating the district's four elementaries into one and the elimination of its aging high school building will cover the debt. He said the new high school cannot be built without the elementary consolidation.

Mr. Liberto added that it is a "perfect" time for the district to borrow the money because it may get an interest rate as low as 3.8 percent and has the option to take advantage of a bond program that is part of the federal economic stimulus initiative.

Penn Hills Municipal Council member Sara Kuhn told the board an elementary center will "change the character of the district" and criticized the board for not having community meetings to get input on the plan.

The board meeting also included the release of schools' performances on the 2009 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests.

Although the district, as a whole, made "Annual Yearly Progress" for the second year in a row, only two schools -- Dible and Washington elementaries -- achieved AYP.

The high school met 14 of 21 PSSA targets. Scores for reading and math were lower than the previous year by 1.9 and 1.1 percent, respectively.

Linton Middle School and Penn Hebron Elementary students reached 20 of 21 targets, with the exception of the special education subgroup in mathematics.

Overall scores in reading and math at Linton increased over the previous year by 6.2 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively.

Director of Elementary Education Renel Williams said the scores for Penn Hebron -- which includes only fourth and fifth grades -- should not be compared with scores from the previous year, when it served kindergarten through grade 5.

Ms. Williams noted that Linton and Penn Hebron were very close to reaching AYP, perhaps missing the mark by as few as four students at each school.

Forbes Elementary met 13 of 14 targets, with the exception of economically disadvantaged students on the reading test.

Ms. Faggioli and parent Bob Marra urged administrators to do more to help students reach proficiency on the PSSA.

"I think it's misleading to say we met AYP," Mr. Marra said. "Almost 60 percent of 11th-graders are not proficient."