Credit: Jeff Bohen/LevittownNow
Two important meetings about the future of the Bristol Township School District will be held Thursday evening.
The first, a state mandated Act 34 hearing for the closure of Croydon’s Mary Devine Elementary School will take place at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of Benjamin Franklin School on Mill Creek Road in Levittown. The Act 34 hearing will allow the district to outline the plans to close the current nine elementary schools and replace them with three new ones, each costing $41 million. Public comment will be accepted and entered into the record during the meeting. Superintendent Dr. Samuel Lee said recently the district and the new school planning team will present information similar to what was presented at community meetings on the proposed project earlier this year.
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Then, starting at 7 p.m. at the municipal building on Bath Road, the Bristol Township School District is expected bring preliminary and final land development proposals before the town council Thursday evening. The plans for James Buchanan Elementary School on Haines Road and Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School on Mill Creek Road in Levittown will be presented and Bristol Township Council will vote on them. The two schools have already been approved by the township zoners and planners.
The chance to come before the township council has been delayed several times, but the district hopes to get the OK from council at the upcoming meeting. Lee said in late November he was “disappointed” by the delays that “may compromise the schedule which could effect costs and minimize this great opportunity.”
The new schools are part of the estimated $152.6 million district-wide facilities overhaul would close the current nine elementary schools and have three 1,300-student buildings constructed in their place. 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 and Clara Barton Elementary School would be re-purposed into the administration and maintenance building.
