JACKSON TWP — The Seneca Valley School Board got its first glimpses of what will be a new school building after Monday night's reorganization meeting.

Mike Corb, CannonDesign's project head for the building, showed board members three options for the new facility, which will be constructed on an Ehrman Road property the district has owned for nearly 20 years.

The options, titled “Gateway,” “Wings” and “Courtyard” and based on the layout and look of the models, were discussed as meeting each of the district's goals for a new building in different ways but all offer fields, improved learning spaces and more parking by about 50 or 70 spaces.

Two parts of the influence for the design, Corb said, were noise control and sunlight with a goal to let more daylight come into the school.

Corb said his team determined the “Wings” option to be the most efficient for the district's goals.

The “Wings” option splits the building into two separate wings for the elementary and middle schools and connects at a point toward the back of the building. The front of the building features parking and bus drop-off with fields in the back of the building.

“This area of the site lends itself well to fields,” Corb said.

Corb said the placement of the fields in this option also provides “reasonable parking for after-hours use of the fields.” He said the plan has an almost-natural seating area for community members to watch any practices on those fields from a hillside.

Corb said the design will split the school, in a way, into separate sections to meet the needs of both the elementary and middle school grade levels that this new facility will host. The Ehrman Road site will be built to take the place of Evans City Middle and Elementary School, which serves kindergarten through sixth grade students, sometime in the spring.

“The goal is to create two schools within a school,” he said.

There was discussion of possibly needing more parking spaces than the 300 already included in the plans, but no definite numbers have been settled.

Corb said he would be back, likely in February, to show the board how the Wings plan develops.

He said a site model will most likely be left in the district administration office next time CannonDesign comes to work on the project.

“This is an abridged version of a lot of discussion,” he said.

Corb said they were on track for final schematic approval from the school district by March.

The project is expected to take years to complete once construction begins. In the past, the board has indicated it would like to see construction on the new building start by summer 2019.

In other district news, school board President Jim Nickel and Vice President Eric DiTullio were both re-elected during the board's reorganization. This will be Nickel's third term as president and seventh on the board. DiTullio has served for nine years, including three as president and five as vice president.