Editorial: Schools can teach lessons about residential use

Schools are one of those ubiquitous structures that are familiar in every community.

Whenever you have kids, you have schools. The evolution of the buildings can be seen in one-room relics, massive brick structures built in the 1930s, the more streamline baby boom buildings, and the newest campuses of recent years.

But the way school construction has changed leaves something behind. It can be more efficient and cost-effective to build a new building, abandoning the old. Sometimes a school district will utilize an old building to fill a new need, like administration or technology. Often the properties are simply sold.

One use is to convert them for residential needs.

The nation and the state have a need for more housing stock in general. Specifically, Pennsylvania needs more affordable and low-income housing.

It is important to note that those terms are not interchangeable. Affordable housing means housing that is economically accessible to the average household. Low-income housing is something people making minimum wage —or less — can afford.

There is also the need for more senior housing as an aging population downsizes from large family homes that no longer make sense for empty nesters, the widowed or those no longer physically able to care for a residence. With fixed retirement incomes, affordability can also be a factor here.

And that can be where repurposing an old school building comes into play. Older buildings are often conveniently located, as more children walked to school back in the day. Classrooms might convert to studio apartments or be connected for more bedrooms.

Morningside Elementary School in Pittsburgh’s neighborhood of the same name has become senior housing. It is one of about a dozen such conversions that have happened or are planned.

It isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Sometimes schools have been neglected too much to be repurposed. Sometimes they are just too old for it to be possible. For instance, retrofitting plumbing for every room in a building built to be a bomb shelter could be a problem. And the older the building, the more likely asbestos mitigation would be an issue, which could be cost prohibitive.

But taking a creative look at the possibilities is worthwhile.

Schools were built to serve the community. They were funded by tax money and staffed by public servants. They nurtured generations of children who came through the doors.

Finding a way to allow them, in their own retirement, to find a way to remain useful and important seems kinder than a wrecking ball.