Neshaminy Plan Closes Schools, Constructs New Building

After years of study and many presentations, the Neshaminy School District could have a plan to consolidate schools and build a new one.

Scott Downie, an architect hired by the district, laid out the “potential roadmap” for the school system Tuesday night at the Facilities Ad Hoc Committee meeting.

The committee voted 2-1 to recommend the plan to the full school board for a vote at Thursday night’s special meeting.

Here’s what the “roadmap” proposes:

• Close Samuel Everitt Elementary School in Levittown by June 2015 and allowed the IU to lease the building.
• Close Langhorne’s Oliver Heckman and Lower Southampton elementary schools by June 2016.
• Build a new 900-student elementary school at the Tawanka site in Lower Southampton. The new school would be ready for students by September 2016. The new building would cost about $30 million.
• Five schools in the district would get Act 39 energy saving upgrades over the summers of 2015 and 2016.
• Reconfigure the middle schools to house grades 5 through 8.

The district would be forced to add space to an elementary school if the 5 to 8 model was not accepted. Downie and district officials said Pearl S. Buck Elementary School in Levittown would likely be the best school for the addition.

Downie told the board the plan’s timetable is “aggressive but doable” for the proposed $53 million project.

Superintendent Robert Copeland told the committee he felt the plan could be carried out successfully in the short amount of time.

The schools listed in the plan outlined Tuesday night are suggestions and committee chairman Stephen Pirritano other schools could be put in their place. Downie said the three schools were listed for closure based the on the results of previous Citizen Advisory Committee reports.

Officials told the public the plan would paid for through bonds, money saved by consolidation and upgrades to the older schools. Pirritano said after the meeting that he was happy the plan would be pretty much “tax neutral.”

Pirritano and Tony Sposato voted for the “roadmap” to be presented to the full board. Ron Rudy voted against it.

Rudy said he felt their are more options the district should consider before making  a move.

Neshaminy has been researching a consolidation plan for several years and several options have been presented before.

Levittown resident Ed Kern said the board should exhaust all options before moving forward.

Residents like Raina Shoemaker and Steve Rodos said the district needs to pick a plan and go forward with it.

“We’ve got to get moving. We’ve got to do something,” Rodos said.

Also at the committee meeting, the group voted to move forward a proposal to let Reynolds Construction do a full examination of all the district elementary and middle schools to see what would best be served by an Act 39 overhaul.

Here’s some background on Act 39:

While it can’t Act 39 be used for major renovations, minor architectural work like paint and ceilings could be covered using loans from the energy savings program. Officials have said the Act 39 contract is fixed-price and any extra charges are the responsibility of the overall project contractor, not the taxpayers.  Reynolds officials said the district could add secure vestibules, one handicap-accessible bathroom, cameras and air conditioning to the elementary schools.

The district received offers from three companies to provide the preliminary Act 39 work but picked Reynolds because of the cost and options they offered.

The special board meeting where the plans will be presented for a vote will happen Thursday night at 7 p.m. in the district meeting room at Maple Point Middle School in Middletown.