The public in the Neshaminy School District got a first look at what a proposed 900-student elementary school in Lower Southampton could look like on Wednesday night.
The roughly $30-million school, which would be built at the site of the Tawanka school on Brownsville Road, would feature a “house” design, according to preliminary plans. The building would be built back from Brownsville Road and have over 140 parking spaces and separate bus loop that could accommodate up to 19 buses, officials from Spiezle Architectural Group said.
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A block of eight classrooms would be in each of the five triangle-shaped corridors in the proposed two-story building. Each section, which were referred to as both “houses” and “neighborhoods,” include eight regular classrooms and at least one special instruction room.
Scott Mallon of Spiezle said “each zone can operate independently.”
The building was designed to be a kindergarten to fourth grade facility, officials from Spiezle said. They added that fifth grade could be accommodated for in the building.
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Across from the first-floor classroom sections, will be the school’s “cafauditorium,” library and the art and music spaces. The main hallway in the building will be called the “main street,” Mallon said.
Officials from Spiezle said the building would feature lots of spaces for collaboration and group work along with natural light. They also said the school would “look more residential than the current building” and be more attractive to nearby residents.
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Mallon said the new building would open in September 2016 under the proposed district “roadmap.”
The school board approved a potential “roadmap” for the district in June. Here’s an outline of the plan:
- 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 school site in Lower Southampton.
- 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 school board is expected to hold a public hearing on the proposed plan in November. The Facilities and Ad Hoc Committee forwarded their suggestion for the public hearing onto the full school board.
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Board President Scott Congdon and board member Stephen Pirritano said Wednesday night that the district’s plan is aimed to do what’s best for the students and taxpayers.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, bond advisers spoke to district officials about the increase of the district’s annual debt service if the project goes forward. The current yearly debt service is $9.1 million and would increase to $9.4 million over the 20 year debt plan.
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One option mentioned by advisers from RBC Capital Markets would restructure the district’s current debt and borrow $50 million to complete the projects proposed in the roadmap. That deal would cost the district $109 million over the next 23 years. The board would have to make that choice on when to borrow, either later this year or next year. RBC Capital officials noted the longer the district waits, the more uncertain interest rates will be.
District business manager Barbra Markowitz said the school system would likely see savings through proposed upgrades at the district’s elementary schools. Those savings would be put toward the cost of the projects.
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Officials from Reynolds Construction Management also came before the committee and said the plans for the proposed retrofit of several elementary schools under Pennsylvania’s Act 39, also known as GESA, is progressing. The full audit will be presented to the board in the coming weeks.
During public comment, several Neshaminy residents raised concerns about cost, transportation for students, maintenance of closed schools and students getting an equal education in the proposed mix having several renovated schools and one new one.
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“We want to make sure each kid in our schools is gets the same education,” Congdon told the group.
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