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Penn Cambria School District |
Mission
The Penn Cambria School District will prepare productive citizens in a safe and positive environment that promotes excellence in academics, career skills, the arts, and athletics.
Shared Values
The Penn Cambria School District collectively values:
- The principle that all students can learn in a healthy and safe environment
- A commitment to honesty, integrity, respect, and diversity
- The educational support of family and community
- Effective teaching of a rigorous and relevant curriculum
- Professional development
- Quality leadership that will foster a culture of teaching and learning
- The use of technology to enhance teaching and learning
- Accountability for all
- A continuous learning ethic
- Artful use of infrastructure that requires the strategic alignment and utilization of faculty, staff , facilities , time, technology, and fiscal resources
Demographic Information
Based on declining student enrollment and the cost of maintaining five buildings, the Penn Cambria School District is currently engaged in an extensive consolidation and building project with a goal of bringing all students to one central campus by the start of the 2027-2028 school year. The district is closing the Penn Cambria Primary Building at the end of the 2024-2025 school year and reconfiguring grade structures in existing buildings until the overall consolidation project is finalized. This ongoing work will result in multiple changes over the next several years for the district with a goal of providing a more positive educational experience for students and families in a fiscally responsible manner.
Penn Cambria School District serves a rural area encompassing 108 square miles along the ridges of east central Cambria County. The district is conveniently located 15 miles west of Altoona, with immediate access to the Route 22, 219 and I-99 corridors. The resident population of 15,234 reside within our 13 municipalities and boroughs, and nine unincorporated villages (Source: NCES – March 2025). 41% of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals through the school lunch program and March 2025 NCES data shows 5.8% of families in the district live below the federal poverty level.
Penn Cambria School District is part of the Southern Alleghenies workforce investment area. Cambria County currently has a 5.2% unemployment rate (Source: PA Workforce Statistics March 2025).
Community resources within the district boundaries include limited public transportation provided by CamTran of Cambria County. Faith-based organizations such as the Dorothy Day Center and St. Vincent DePaul Society provide assistance for families in need. There are also general practice physicians, day care and pre-school providers, three public libraries, a senior center, and volunteer fire services.
Student enrollment is 1443 and enrollment is projected to continue to decline in the future. The district employs 144 professional staff, inclusive of instructional specialists, administrators, and itinerant staff. Approximately 55% of teachers have earned master’s degrees (Source: PIMS Staff data October 2024) For the 2025-2026 school year, our four buildings are organized into a Pre-Primary School for our Pre-K-grade 1, an Intermediate School for grades 2 and 3, a Middle School for grades 4 through 6, and a High School for grades 7 through 12. Each building contains a library media center as well as the technology infrastructure and computer facilities to supplement the curriculum, instruction, and assessment needs of faculty and students.
The Penn Cambria School District has a cohort graduation rate of 92.3% (Source: 2025 Future Ready PA Index).
Our elementary schools provide a core curriculum enhanced with the study of topics such as art, music, library, and physical education. There is a functional Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) team that identifies services and supports for students that may be struggling.
Our high school students are encouraged to challenge themselves with weighted honors level classes and 11 Dual Credit classes throughout the high school experience. The industrious student can graduate with 18 or more college credits on their transcript. 35% of our students attend half-day programming at Admiral Peary Area Vocational-Technical School where they can take advantage of opportunities to prepare for industry certification in technical and/or trade skills leading to employment or further education through trade school after graduation. All students are strongly encouraged to participate in extra-curricular activities through athletics, the arts, and community service groups throughout their High School careers.