Plans are moving forward for Crawford Central School District’s elementary building renovation plan, which begins with upgrades for First and Second District elementary schools.

LDA Architects and Thomas and Williamson, the district’s construction managers, presented project updates and three options for traffic flow of private vehicles and small vans at First District during this week’s school board work session. The options affect those children who are driven to and from school and are not bused.

Option A would open a 16-foot-wide, one-way alley from the parking lot behind the school to Highland Avenue. The curb cut for this alley currently exists between the homes at 718 and 724 Highland Ave. Option B would expand this alley to 20 feet to accommodate two-way traffic to and from Highland Avenue. Under this scenario the school district would probably have to purchase at least one of the Highland Avenue properties. Option C would bring two-way traffic down Clover Lane, which would be extended to the parking lot behind the school. A one-way exit from the parking lot would lead onto Highland Avenue. In order to connect Clover with the parking lot, the school district would have to demolish a two-story storage garage.

All of these plans would displace the current playground which would be located directly behind the school, where there is currently a parking lot.

Options A and C do not include property acquisition. All options will continued to be considered by the board.

One of the main considerations in devising the route is to reduce traffic at the intersection of Baldwin and North Main streets, according to David Roth of LDA Architects.

According to board President Ross Prather, Highland Avenue “seems big enough to accommodate the traffic.” Board Vice President Jan VanTuil also expressed interest in the one-way traffic to Highland Avenue as an option.

The renovation plan selected by the board at its July meeting includes basic renovations for each of the district’s six elementary schools, along with the addition of a science room and either expanding or adding a cafeteria to each building, with a total cost estimated at nearly $37 million. State law allows Pennsylvania’s school districts to receive state compensation for renovating a specific building only once every 20 years.

LDA Architects recently met with committees, which include community members, teachers and administrators, at First and Second District elementary schools to receive feedback on the project. The committees meet five times — once per month — on detailed developments of plans for the two schools. Some concerns included ample room for a pre-kindergarten classroom in First District; a second set of faculty bathrooms in Second District; and how the cafeterias should be utilized in each school.

The architect also met with the city’s zoning and planning commission about its plans, which “worked well with their regulations,” according to Ellis Schmidlapp of LDA Architects.

The next committee meeting will involve designs for individual rooms in the schools, according to Schmidlapp.

You can go

Crawford Central School Board is expected to vote on using remaining funds of more than $300,000 for capital improvements to include any costs or expenses incurred by the district for renovations of the elementary schools at its next meeting Monday at 7 p.m. at the Instructional Support Center, 11280 Mercer Pike, Meadville.