Despite rumors throughout the community and posts on the internet, Bristol Township School District officials have insisted over the past month that plans to build a new 1,300 student school in the Croydon section are moving forward.
Credit: Google Maps
Superintendent Dr. Sam Lee confirmed last week and again on Monday that the district fully intends to build a new school to serve elementary-aged children who live in Croydon and the surrounding area.
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The district is awaiting land development approval from the township and then will be able to bid the project out and eventually start construction on the new school, Lee said. Work on the school could start as soon as the end of summer.
The roughly 400 students displaced when Devine could close come the last day of school will attend the first floor of the Benjamin Franklin School, which also currently houses the administration offices, until construction is done. While no firm opening date for the new school is set, Lee said it could be open by September 2016.
The board has not officially voted to close Mary Devine come the last day of school.
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District officials have stressed the bond money for James Buchanan site on Haines Road and Ralph W. Emerson site on Mill Creek Road in Levittown have been approved along with Devine. That would appear to counter some worries that the district does not have money available for the construction.
A petition, with nearly 400 signatures as of 5 p.m., circulated the community claims that the district “does not have money secured for its building.” The online petition also says the closing of the school would leave Croydon students “without a local elementary school with no plans secured to build a new one.”
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Here’s the full text of the Change.org petition message:
The Bristol Township School Board is creating 3 mega-schools to replace the 9 elementary schools. Two of these schools (at sites of Emerson and Buchanan) have had the building plans approved and bond monies secured. The last site, proposed at Mary Devine, has NOT had building plans approved and DOES NOT have money secured for its building. Despite these facts, the school board is still closing Mary Devine and moving the students to Ben Franklin School in Levittown, 5 miles and 20 minutes away from our Croydon school. This will leave the Old Croydon and Croydon Manor residents without a local elementary school with no plans secured to build a new one.
Image Credit: Jeff Bohen
Concerned residents have also voiced their worry that students will be shipped to the Franklin school and that will become their permanent elementary school. District officials said that is not true and they hope to retrofit Franklin into a middle school when Franklin D. Roosevelt School is closed.
A group of residents along with some members of Bristol Township Council met at the Sunrise Diner in Croydon on Sunday night to voice their worry.
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Lee said he can understand residents concern and added the three new schools will “ultimately benefit the community.”
Publisher/Editor Jeff Bohen contributed to this report.
