PHILIPSBURG, Pa. -- Hundreds of residents recently surveyed in the Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District believe the Junior High School building should be closed down.

At Monday's press conference inside the North Lincoln Hill Elementary School, district officials released results from the building committee survey that was mailed to district residents.

The majority of the 1,500 surveys mailed back from residents of Centre and Clearfield counties show support for consolidating the district from five to four buildings; only 24 percent of respondents believe all five buildings should remain operational.

"To just get by is the most expensive choice of anything," said Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District Media Relations officer Dena Cipriano. "We're just paying for all of these repairs and not getting any state reimbursement for it."

At Monday's press conference, Superintendent Dr. Stephen Benson addressed parents' concerns of consolidation leading to larger class sizes.

"If the buildings are consolidated, those classroom sizes will be equalized," said Benson. "We're not looking at bigger class sizes, we're looking at equalized class sizes."

Cipriano said the 33 percent response rate shows the independently conducted survey was a success, despite concerns of the mailing being confused for junk mail.

"How many people picked it up, thought it was junk mail and threw it away; I don't know," said Cipriano. "I can say that our confidence level is at 99 percent. So, even if a thousand people thought it was junk mail and threw it away, we're still going to get essentially the same results as we did."

Despite the cost savings of consolidation when compared to maintaing all five district buildings at $35 million, some residents believe the Junior High School building should remain operational, including Linda Jackson, whose grandson attends school in the district.

"Seventh and eighth graders should not be mixed in with the older kids," said Jackson. "Because they're so impressionable."

The building committee will present the survey findings to the School Board Tuesday evening.

School Board members are expected to vote on a decision March 22.