William Penn

The Harrisburg School Board voted Tuesday night to demolish William Penn and use the 27-acre property for district needs.

The dilapidated state of the building—a target of arson and vandalism that suffers from deterioration, water damage and broken doors and windows among other issues—was a big factor in the decision for the board.

“If this had been 15 years ago, this would have been in a different context,” said board member Annie Hughes. “We’d be dealing with a different situation. There’d be different options on the table that aren’t on the table really viably right now because it’s been 15 years.”

The century-old, five-acre school building has been vacant since 2011, last used as a vocational school in 2011. Its demolition has been quoted at $5.3 million.

Vice president Autumn Anderson said that she felt it was her responsibility as a school board director for a district that just exited receivership last year to go with the least-risky option, despite being someone who personally would love to see the building restored.

“This is a hard decision, but at the end of the day, I’m making a decision as a school board director,” she said. “I have to put the school district students first, and so that comes down to making good, financial and responsible decisions for them.”

The 7-1 demolition vote noted that William Penn’s land will be used “in a manner consistent with the educational mission of the district,” although, two weeks ago, Superintendent Benjamin Henry identified the construction of athletic fields as the administration’s recommendation for the property’s use.

Board member Brian Carter expressed concern before the vote about pursuing sports fields, rather than academics.

“Every student in the district is not an athlete,” he said, prior to voting against the demo. 

Primarily, the administration had recommended a soccer field (estimated at $896,000) for the varsity girls’ team, currently practicing in the outfield of a boys’ baseball field.

Board President Rosyln Copeland, who attended the co-op program at William Penn when she was a student, added that the building is plagued by vandalism and that the district pays a hefty price (roughly $566,000 per year) in security and insurance costs to keep the building standing. 

“Our children are not in this building, so they’re not learning,” she said.

Harrisburg School Board officials

The district’s risk-versus-benefit analysis earlier this month also weighed an additional seven options, all presented in November to the board at a special meeting. The analysis also followed years of dialogue with the Harrisburg community over the future of the building following a called-off plan for its demolition in 2023.

Three options that would pursue the building’s adaptive reuse for various projects were considered financially risky (as they relied on to-be-determined funding sources) and failed to align with the district’s K-12 education agenda. Plus, defaults or underperformance on such projects could affect the district’s credit, clarified district solicitor Jeffrey Sultanik Tuesday.

The board moved 5-3, with board members Carter, Copeland, and Terricia Radcliff voting “no,”  to explicitly decline pursuing these partnerships further Tuesday night.

Melanie Cook, community task force member and Harrisburg resident, expressed her dissatisfaction Tuesday that the board had failed to take into account the recommendations that were made by a task force.

“That task force made a recommendation that that building be preserved to the greatest extent possible and adaptively be reused to create opportunities for our students,” she said, noting it was made up of Harrisburg engineers, lawyers, community activists, urban planners and urban farmers.

The Community Task Force’s proposed plan to partially or fully repair the building into a career technical education center was also considered financially risky for the district, as it would bring an estimated cost of $13 to $93 million. The district is operating under an existing debt burden of $19 million per year through 2036.

Board member Danielle Robinson was absent from the meeting.

The William Penn building is located on the 2000-block of N. 4th St., Harrisburg. 

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