HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – The Old William Penn High School, it’s a place that is near and dear to many people in Harrisburg.

So, after the school board decided to demolish the building, community members pushed back.

It’s why the district’s receiver has appointed a task force.

On Tuesday at the district’s school board meeting, Harrisburg’s court-appointed receiver for the district, Dr. Lori Suski appointed 27 community officials, and members, and two of those members are students to be on the task force.

One student will be from the John Harris Campus and the other will be from SciTech Campus.

Two co-facilitators and five ex-officio members are also part of the task force.

“This is our due diligence, good faith effort to look at what other options exist. And obviously, we will be doing a lot of research, a lot of homework, a lot of data gathering. And I am very much looking forward to the process of having the community be able to get together as a group,” said Dr. Suski.

The task force will look into all possible options for the old William Penn High School Building.

The group will get together twice a month in October, November, and December on Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The exact dates have not been released. The meetings are open to the public but there will be no public comment.

“The ultimate goal of studying various options, some that were presented here during public comment two weeks ago, other options that continue to surface throughout the community,” said Dr. Suski.

Options include having a green space which would allow the district to add more sports. A popular idea is bringing back the Career and Technology Center at William Penn which ended in 2010.

Another thought is to preserve the façade of the building and demolish the rest.

“So, for those residents here, if you have input that you would like considered, please reach out to one of the individuals that is listed as a member of the task force and let your thoughts be known and they are there to represent your interests as constituents in the community,” said Dr. Suski.

Dr. Suski shared the end goal of having a task force.

“Coming back to the January committee and having a full report provided by the task force here at a public board meeting so that the task force can express to the community and to the full school board and to myself as the receiver what recommendations are being made,” said Dr. Suski.