IN Peters Township August/September 2018 | Seite 47

Mr. Unitas–a photographer who lives just down the street from PTHS–
took these photos during construction stages in the late 1960s.
1969, at 2 p.m. with the late Superintendent Dr. Howard
Jack presiding.
Fifty years later, as the township growth has continued,
Peters Township School District now educates 4,056
students in five school buildings, and 1,463 of those
students attend Peters Township High School.
Making that first ceremonial shovel of dirt at the
groundbreaking for this newest addition to the district was
Board President Tom McMurray, son of Robert McMurray
who held the same position at the 1966 groundbreaking.
“Breaking ground is such an exciting beginning and I
was especially honored to be in the same position as my
father so many years before,” says McMurray, who has
served on the board since 1983. “Many hours of work led
to that moment. Our board has worked hard to balance
the vision of what is possible in the new facility, with fiscal
responsibility for this community.”
Fifty years brings many changes in a community and
also in the way Peters Township School District educates
its students. The road to the new high school building
began in 2016 when the district began to examine the long-
range plan for its facilities. The Board of School Directors
completed a comprehensive High School Feasibility Study,
as well as a District-wide Facilities Assessment. In addition,
a long-range demographics study was conducted to inform
the process. Before the decision to move forward with a
new school was made, the board examined several options
and wanted to ensure that any new construction would not
be done at the expense of other district facilities. As plans
came into focus, the board and administration worked
diligently to ensure that the building would meet the needs
of the community both now and in the future.
“The process has been a true collaboration,” explains
Superintendent Dr. Jeannine French. “From the very
beginning we wanted to make sure the new school would
meet the needs of our community – that meant involving all
of the stakeholders very early on.” District staff and students
played key roles in detailing space needs for the new school,
but meetings were also held with PTA members, booster
group parents and local business owners to review the plans
and gather feedback.
“Some of our most important meetings were with our
local first responders,” says French. “The new school was
designed with safety in mind from the start.”
The maximum budget for the project is set at $95 million.
“The estimated impact to our taxpayers is less than 1.57
mills for the entire project – keeping Peters Township’s
millage far under competitive schools in our area,” notes
Shelly Belcher, Communications Coordinator for the
district.
It is projected that the new high school building will take
approximately two and a half years to complete and the
class of 2021 will be its first graduating class.   n
Special thanks to Margaret Dietzer, Robert Moore and
Shelly Belcher for contributing information regarding
this article.
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PETERS TOWNSHIP
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