Credit: Bristol Township School District
The Wednesday evening Bristol Township Planning Commission meeting didn’t go exactly how school district officials hoped it would.
The commission tabled the conditional use hearing for the new elementary school proposed for the site of Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary on Mill Creek Road in Levittown.
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Planning Commission Chairman John Greer said he received his packet on the project on Monday and had not had time to properly review the information, which included a letter from the township engineer to district. Greer, the commission and the school district agreed to table the plans until the November 20 planning meeting.
Board member Kathy Geissel asked if district and township engineer could work to come up with a more “streamlined” recommendation letter. The one given to planning commission members recently had 69 points and was several pages long.
“In order to be fair in handling how this can be done, we need more time,” Greer said.
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Tim Duffy, project solicitor from the school district, asked if the planning commission could hold a special meeting before November 20 to vote on the plans. Greer said that commission members’ schedules would not allow that and reminded Duffy the board was all volunteers.
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Following the meeting, Duffy told LevittownNow.com the delay would likely push the plans for a new 140,000 square-foot, 1,300-student elementary school at the Emerson back. District officials hoped to open the three new schools in September 2015.
The new schools are part of the district-wide facilities overhaul. The project would close nine elementary schools and have three new buildings constructed in the place of three buildings. Franklin D. Roosevelt Middle School would close, while 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. Each elementary school is now project to cost more than $41 million.
A handful of residents showed up for the 7 p.m. meeting at the township building on Bath Road.
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“Bottom line is that we have concern for township residents and students,” Greer said of the board’s role.
