Public Asks Neshaminy to Reconsider Consolidation & Fifth Grade Move to the Middle School

Dozens of Neshaminy School District  residents spoke out against the school board’s plan to consolidate schools and move the fifth grade to the middle schools on Tuesday.

Among the most notable residents that asked the board to reconsider their plans was Republican Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8). The congressman was not able to attend the meeting due to a scheduling conflict but he did send a letter to board President Scott Congdon.

Fitzpatrick, a former Samuel Everitt Elementary School student, laid out William Levitt’s goal to give the neighborhoods schools that served the community.

“As a former school district solicitor, I fully understand the pressure school districts face in complying with government mandates, fiscal constraints and curriculum requirements in a rapidly changing society, but it is important to know our children are not line items in a budget,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

LevittownNow.com exclusively spoke with Fitzpatrick Tuesday afternoon while he was drafting the letter that would be submitted to the board.

“This is an important issue to me and an important issue to the community. I am going to ask the school officials to reconsider,” the congressman said when ask why he was writing the letter.

He also spoke of his time as a member of the Bucks County Commissioners, where he put up referendums for an expansion to Bucks County Community College and an expansion to the open-space program.

“You put the choice in the hands of the citizens and they make the right decision,” he said, adding he thinks putting the plans up for referendum has “little downside.”

Fitzpatrick wasn’t alone in asking for a referendum on the plan. Many residents called for a referendum on the project’s bonds. They said without bonds, the project would not get funded.

Levittown resident Mark Fiore criticized the savings that district officials projected the consolidation plan would bring. In his analysis of the numbers provided by the district, Fiore claimed the district could not achieve the projected $2 million savings due to staffing and supply costs the proposed new 900-student school in Lower Southampton would be subject to.

Levittown parent and Democratic State Representative candidate Gina Kiley spoke to the board and asked how they could make a “real decision” without having cost estimates on the new building and the renovations proposed for the other schools.

Kiley and other parents also raised concerns about the plan to move fifth graders to the middle schools. Their public comments came after a district presentation that outlined the proposed change.

“It is a mistake to put elementary school kids in the middle school,” Langhorne parent Angie Manning said. Manning is a elementary school teacher in New Jersey.

Tim Sauritch, a teacher at Everitt, said many kids in fifth grade classes are not yet ready middle school.

The majority of the  the parents who spoke against the plan lived in the Everitt and Oliver Heckman Elementary School communities.

Board member Ron Rudy questioned the bond figures officials have previously used. He told LevittownNow.com after the meeting that he did not see a cost savings with the consolidation plans after he looked at the proposed bond payments.

“We’re going to get nailed on this later,” he said. “This really isn’t a cost savings.”

While Rudy and board member Mike Morris publicly discussed about the numbers during the board comment portion of the meeting. Board President Scott Congdon told the men to put their numbers on paper. Then, shouting from the audience broke out and Congdon made a motion to adjourn the meeting for the evening.

Outside the Maple Point Middle School auditorium, outspoken Levittown resident Jim Jenca and board member Stephen Pirritano got into a shouting match minutes after the meeting ended. A LevittownNow.com reporter did not witness how the argument started. A Neshaminy School District security official had to get between the two men. The incident was later reported to Middletown police.

Board members said during Tuesday’s meeting they would likely set a date for a state-required, Act 34 hearing on construction spending at the next meeting on October 28.

Click to access FitzpatrickletterNSB.pdf

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story said Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick’s students attended Everitt  Elementary School. That information was incorrect and has since been corrected.