BELLEFONTE — Bellefonte Area School District’s superintendent this week offered an early look at projected class sizes for the 2026-27 school year as the district moves toward consolidation of its elementary schools.

The preview comes nearly a year after the school board voted to close both Benner and Bellefonte elementary in anticipation of the opening of the district’s new $50 million Bellefonte Elementary School in Fall 2026. The consolidation will reduce the district’s elementary schools from four to three, with boundary adjustments recommended as part of the transition.

Superintendent Roy Rakszawski presented the preliminary projections of what elementary class sizes could look like if students from Benner and Bellefonte elementary schools were combined at the new facility as part of an initial discussion on potential attendance area boundary changes.

“I wanted to start with just showing you what it looks like with a simple transfer of those students,” Rakszawski said.

The projections, calculated in November 2025, break down as follows, but are subject to change prior to the school year based on attendance area redistricting and enrollment across all elementary school grades:

BELLEFONTE

The new Bellefonte Elementary School, at 1002 Airport Road, is expected to enroll approximately 556 students in the 2026-27 school year. Across grades K-5, the average class size is about 20 students per section, with roughly five sections per grade. Projected class sizes range from 19 to 23 students.

MARION WALKER

At Marion Walker in Hublersburg, an estimated 328 students will be divided into classes averaging about 18 students each. Class sizes are projected to range from 17 to 23 students, with roughly three sections per grade.

PLEASANT GAP

At Pleasant Gap Elementary, only an estimated 201 students are expected to enroll for the 2026-27 school year. That works out to an average of about 16 students per class, with individual class sizes ranging from 12 to 18 students across roughly two sections per grade — the smallest averages among the district’s three elementary schools.

“Pleasant Gap is somewhat less than the other two schools, and I would recommend, in the interest of not just equity but effective teaching and learning, that we take a look at equalizing those class sizes,” said Rakszawski. “I would forewarn you that would involve changing some boundaries for our elementary schools.”

The board generally supported the concept of adjusting elementary school attendance boundaries to help balance class sizes, and asked Rakszawski to present his recommendations at their next meeting.

The superintendent said he had one or two options for the board to consider. Though he did not provide specifics, he said priorities would include minimizing the number of students affected and creating geographically clean boundaries.

He explained the intention is to keep distinct neighborhoods together, avoiding a situation where students across the street or next door to one another would be sent to different elementaries.

“I think that’s important because maintaining that coherence in a neighborhood and school will go far in maintaining a sense of unity and school culture and belonging in that school and neighborhood,” Rakszawski said.

School board member Donna Smith asked if the district planned to revise attendance areas each year or if the changes were designed to reflect long-term demographic trends. To this, Rakszawski intimated that he intends for any new boundaries to remain at least through the completion of the current cohort of students.

“The reason I think there would be a minimal effect in terms of the year after, or the year after, is because my preliminary look at this shows there are certain areas that can be moved where those students are almost evenly spread across grade levels — they aren’t clustered in one particular grade level or two grade levels,” said the superintendent, who added, “Once that cohort moves out, it could look a little different.”

“That said,” he continued, “it is almost impossible to predict that with 100 percent accuracy… It’s really a projection with the numbers that we have.”