We, residents of the State College Area School District of Pennsylvania, support keeping the Lemont Elementary School as a school as the best use of our districts assets. Its solid construction should be intelligently and economically rehabilitated for a necessary and overdue updating. The Lemont School serves as an anchor for the Village of Lemont, a National Historic District that is valued and supported as a place of pride and cultural heritage. The updating of historic public school buildings has proven repeatedly across the nation to be less expensive, both in the short term and long term, than construction or renovation of newer structures with less impact on the environment. Smaller neighborhood schools reinforce real estate values that protect the tax base, promote physically healthier young citizens through opportunities for walking and biking, combat the student anonymity and isolation that breeds bullying, are more cost effective in administration over time, and provide nurturing characteristics that result in producing responsible, stable, and productive entrants to society.