The Scranton School District’s purchase of a building on East Mountain from the nonprofit Friendship House will help it address capacity concerns and accommodate a growing special education population, district and school board leaders said.

The building at 1509 Maple St., Scranton, will house an expansion of the district’s Monticello Program for students in Kindergarten through second grade.

Part of the district’s Electric City Academy at 1739 Dickson Ave., Monticello is a center-based program for special education students, officials said in a recent news release. The expanded program will complement and augment the district’s school-based programs for special education students, which will continue.

Scranton school directors voted 7-2 Monday, with Directors Carol Cleary and Catherine Fox opposed, to purchase the building from the nonprofit in a $2.5 million transaction that includes several parcels. Friendship House will lease back approximately 15% of the building and pay the district $15,596 in monthly rent under the terms of the lease agreement.

It comes as the district’s population of special education students, including students with diagnosed autism spectrum disorder, continues to grow. Scranton added 10 autistic support classrooms at the beginning of this school year, bringing its total number to 48, the release notes.

Superintendent Erin Keating, Ed.D., referenced the increasing demand this past summer when she recommended a pause on any potential school closures or consolidations amid a “dramatic increase” in the population of special education students the district serves.

“The District is projected to have approximately 160 Early Intervention students enroll in the 2026-2027 school year, requiring additional full-time support classrooms,” per the news release. “At that point, our existing District-owned buildings will no longer have the capacity to meet demand. Purchasing an additional property became a necessary and responsible solution to ensure we were prepared before the start of the next school year.”

It describes the Friendship House building, which “can be efficiently retrofitted to meet special education classroom requirements and positioned to open for students during the 26-27 school year,” as the “strongest option” of multiple district officials explored. There also exists the possibility of bolstering tuition revenue by opening more seats to students from other school districts, in addition to the monthly revenue generated from the Friendship House lease.

School Board President Tom Borthwick, who assumed that leadership role earlier this month, touted multiple benefits of the building purchase.

“This is an expansion of Monticello and it’s providing what I would call a desperately needed service: it’ll be a K-2 autistic-support center,” Borthwick said. “So these are kids with special needs that need specially trained staff to help them learn and grow, and so by doing this we are going to be providing for our population, but it also will free up space. That’s huge because the burden on our elementaries, they’re all bursting at the seams and we can’t expand preschool if we don’t have classroom space, and that’s one of the priorities of this board.”

Noting officials will hold a town hall in East Mountain at some point to discuss plans for the building, Borthwick called the purchase a “no-brainer,”

“It checks every box,” he said.

Keating agreed the facility meets the district’s needs.

“I need to be able to get this moving quickly,” she said. “I have 160 (early intervention) kids coming in. Not all of those kids will require these services, but I want to make sure I’m prepared for any student who does.”

She elaborated moments later.

“I want every child in this school district to receive the education that they need, and with special education students that is individualized,” Keating said. “So I want to make sure that I’m building the programming that is necessary to meet the needs of the students that I serve. That’s always going to be my goal, and to make every student in the Scranton School District as successful as possible.”