Karns City Area School District will follow through with plans to eventually demolish the former Sugarcreek Elementary School.

Karns City Area School District will follow through with plans to eventually demolish the former Sugarcreek Elementary School.

Karns City’s school board voted earlier this month to approve a services proposal from H.F. Lenz to prepare the decommissioning of the former elementary school building.

The former school, located in Cowansville, Armstrong County, closed at the end of the 2023-24 school year.

Superintendent Eric Ritzert said, after the board’s March 10 meeting, the board of directors had been considering razing the building to convert the land into athletic fields. The board’s decision to move forward came April 14.

In the days following that meeting, Ritzert said the property could be a valuable resource and have future use for the district once the building is razed.

“Since the school closed, the district has used it intermittently for certain activities, practices in the gymnasium, but it was not getting a lot of use from the district,” Ritzert said. “From the standpoint of what to do about it, through ongoing discussions, the district has explored and is moving forward toward demolition.”

Ritzert said razing the building makes the most sense. Costs year in, year out for things like heating and electricity are not worth keeping the building, he said.

New baseball and softball fields on the land are a possibility once the building is gone. Karns City, along with several other schools, currently uses Pullman Park in Butler for its games.

Ritzert said the district has looked at several different properties in the past, including near the high school campus, though the hilly environment and lack of room for a whole field make it hard to get any use out of them. He said there also is a possibility of the district partnering with Sugarcreek Township to use its park for future games.

“In the past couple years, we’ve added junior high baseball and softball programs, and we’re looking for space and fields,” Ritzert said. “Several local residents have attended board meetings over past six months and shared input.

“We would prefer it to be utilized for our students in some capacity, even if that means building being razed. We’re trying to do right by our community.”