District Officials Present Lafayette Plan to Community

The Bristol Township School District presented plans to potentially build a third $37 million elementary school at the Lafayette Elementary School site to about 50 members of the community Tuesday evening.

The Lafayette site replaces the Mary Devine Elementary School site in Croydon, which was denied last month by the Bristol Township Zoning Board because of flood zone concerns.

Superintendent Dr. Samuel Lee said the Lafayette site was “always the second option” to Devine.

The school, which is to be built behind the current Lafayette building, will be nearly identical to the two-story, 1,300-student buildings approved by the zoning board for the James Buchanan Elementary School and Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School sites in Levittown.

Kindergarten through second grade will be in part of the building and third through fifth grade in the other section of the facility. District officials said previously that the parking and student pick-up situation that plagues many schools is expected to improve with the new schools.

Click here to see renderings of what the new schools are expected to look like

The estimated $152.6 million facilities overhaul would close Franklin D. Roosevelt Middle School; Neil A. Armstrong Middle School and the former Benjamin Franklin School, currently home to the district administrative staff, would be renovated for middle school students. Harry S. Truman High School would not see any major work done. Clara Barton Elementary School would be re-purposed into the administration and maintenance building.

The new school at the site would not affect any of the district-owned wooded areas on the property, Dave Schrader, managing partner at the Schrader Group Architecture, said.

Tuesday evening’s meeting came less than a week before the plan to construct a new school at the site will come before the Bristol Township Zoning Board.

Residents asked questions on a variety of issues.

Stormwater management came up several times during the question and answer portion of the meeting.

“I’m fairly confident that your storm water situation will be far better than it is currently at this site,” a project official said.

Project Solicitor Tim Duffy responded to several other questions by telling residents that traffic, noise and a variety of issues would be addressed as the project moves to the land development phase.

While the entire township schools project is not a lock, neither is the Lafayette site. Lee said that district is expected receive a formal written decision on why the Devine site was not approved by the end of August. He said officials will review it and see if anything can be done to utilize that site and whether it makes sense for the district to appeal it.

If the project goes forward, officials hope all three new elementary schools would be open by September 2015.

 Related:

• Buses to be Housed at Franklin School
• Lafayette to Replace Devine as Site of New School
• 2 School Plans Approved, 1 Denied by Zoning Board
• Security of High Concern at New Schools Meeting
• Tax Hike, Jobs Cuts Part of Approved BTSD Budget