Projected growth in the Seneca Valley School District has prompted administrators to propose building an elementary school on Ehrman Road.

They also are considering moving some pupils from Rowan Elementary School to Haine Elementary School next year.

The new school would be built on 152 acres the district bought in 2001 that span the Cranberry and Jackson border and are central to the district's nine communities.

Administrators recommend building a school within a school for kindergarten through fourth grade and for fifth and sixth grades on 20 acres of the Ehrman Road property.

The school would have separate instruction spaces but a shared central gymnasium, cafeteria, library and nurse's office, similar to the configuration of the Haine and Evans City schools.

Jeffrey Fuller, assistant superintendent for kindergarten through sixth-grade instruction, presented the plan at the school board meeting Monday night.

"There is very little space in our elementary buildings for growth," he said.

He noted that functional capacity is less than building capacity.

"Functional capacity is how many things can we do in the school without having children sitting in the hallways," Mr. Fuller said.

He suggested the district hire an architect this summer and plan a completion date of fall 2009.

"We have to make sure we provide equal opportunities across the district," Superintendent Donald Tylinski said.

Since Shelby Stewman, a professor of demography and sociology at Carnegie Mellon University, completed a study in 2004 on enrollment predictions, school administrators have been asking the municipalities for data on proposed housing plans, Dr. Tylinski said.

"There are a number of units and townhouses on top of the numbers that were used in the predictive study," he said.

The Georgetown Square development on Freedom Road in Cranberry is expected to have 900 townhouses upon completion.

"It's important for us to be prepared. We're looking at consistency [from year to year]. And we're trying to keep our class sizes as low as possible throughout the district," Dr. Tylinski said.

To address more immediate growth issues, administrators proposed a redistricting plan that would move pupils in six Cranberry neighborhoods from Rowan to Haine elementary next year.

The neighborhoods recommended for redistricting are Laurelwood and The Crossings on Rochester Road and Highland Village, Havenwood, Avery's Field and Hunter's Creek on Powell Road.

Mr. Fuller said Rowan Elementary cannot accommodate projected growth. The number of incoming kindergartners next year is 33 more than this year, and the projected number of fourth-graders next year is 23 more than this year's class.

He proposed adding one kindergarten class and two fourth-grade classes at Haine.

"If we don't add those additional sessions, then the average class size will balloon to 28.6," he said.

Rowan Elementary has a building capacity of 900, and Haine Elementary can accommodate 1,050. Currently, Rowan has 892 pupils and Haine has 671.

The school board is expected to again discuss the redistricting plan at 8 p.m. March 13 in the Intermediate High School on Seneca School Road.

First Published: February 16, 2006, 5:00 a.m.