Even as existing facilities are already feeling some enrollment pressure, the State College Area School District is looking for ways, including building a middle school, to house an expected 2,000 new students during the next ten years.

Administrators said they see a need to address building-use problems as the district's population increases. They are reviewing a study done by the Citizens Advisory Committee on Demographics and Building Utilization which offers several ways to meet the climbing enrollment.

"Some teachers are literally teaching out of closets now," said Debra Latta, a seventh grade teacher at State College Area Junior High School and president of the State College Area Education Association. Due to a lack of space, many specialty programs are becoming 'cart classes,' where materials are moved from room to room rather than being set up in one specific area, she said.

As spin-off industries from the University continue to expand in the region, the area's total population is expected to increase by about 11,000 by the turn of the century, said Bob Crum, regional planner for the Centre Region Planning Commission.

The recently-approved Penn State Research Park also is expected to create between 1,500 and 2,000 new jobs and about 250 new students for the district, said Elliot Abrams, chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Demographics and Building Utilization and vice president of Accu-Weather Inc., 619 W. College Ave.

A recent report compiled by the committee, based on projected growth rates, shows that the student population is expected to increase by about 2,000 -- to more than 8,000 students by the 1999-2000 school year.

Although the committee offered three possibilities for further study to address the building-use problem, its members, including district faculty, University faculty and staff and area business people, are recommending one in particular. The members favor a study into the establishment of a middle school for grades six through eight along with minor additions to several elementary schools.

Grades seven and eight are now run as a junior high, which many committee members believe does not work. A middle school would be better to provide the transition from elementary school to high school as student enrollment increases.

"Most students are so lost, they are just thrown in (junior high)," said Latta, citing the problems of students moving from a small neighborhood elementary school to a much larger one without much transition.

Besides easing the transition for students, the group cited two other advantages of a middle school:

-- Construction of a middle school would alleviate overcrowding in the elementary schools by removing the sixth grade.

-- A small middle school environment would allow teachers to have better contact with their students.

"Teachers don't get to know their kids (in larger schools)," said Anne Petersen, Dean of the University's College of Health and Human Development and a member of the committee.

A small community environment would also benefit many educational programs and allow the current system of "teaming" to work better, she said.

Teaming -- an educational technique where a group of teachers works with the same group of students, teaching them math, English, science, and reading -- allows teachers to know the students better and plan long-range projects and major testing so students are not overloaded with work.

The State College Area School District recently instituted a system of teaming for the seventh and eighth grades where four to five teachers instruct the same 125 students, and has seen much success, said Latta.

"It is working beautifully and I would like to see it continue in a middle school environment," she said.

Although neither the school board nor the administration has made any decisions based on the committee's recommendations, they agree that something must be done to alleviate already crowded schools.

"The capacity of the junior high will be exceeded in four years," said Robert Baker, assistant superintendent for instruction. "We should be doing something . . . to do nothing would be frightening."