By Summer, Two More Neshaminy Elementary Schools Could Close

The three-member Neshaminy School Board Facilities Ad Hoc Committee agreed Thursday night to recommend to the full board a vote to advertise two Act 34 hearings for the potential closings of Oliver Heckman Elementary School in Langhorne and Lower Southampton Elementary School in Lower Southampton.

Board members Stephen Pirritano and Anthony Sposato voted to advertise separate hearings for the schools. Board member Ron Rudy voted against the recommendation. The full board will get the chance to vote on the committee’s recommendation at their Tuesday night meeting at Maple Point Middle School in Middletown.

The Act 34 hearings will gather testimony from the community on the schools. The testimony will be submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Education during a 90 day period before any further action on the schools can be taken. If the board moves forward with the hearings, a vote on closing the schools could come in spring, with both buildings possibly closing by the end of June.

If the board approves advertising the hearings, they could be held as soon as January, Pirritano said.

The proposed closures should come as no surprise as they have been talked about in Neshaminy for up to two years. The plans are part of the district’s “roadmap to the future” that will cut down on the number of elementary schools to fit the district’s needs and save funds.

Sposato said closures will help keep the “district in the business of education and not keeping buildings open.”

Parents, mostly of Heckman students, filled the meeting and asked questions about the plan, which Pirritano said is not final because the public will get chances to weigh in before the board makes a final decision.

District officials said the closure of Heckman will force redistricting of students. The majority of students would go to the new elementary school being constructed at the Tawanka School site in Lower Southampton and the rest will attend Pearl Buck Elementary School in Levittown.

Parents raised concerns about the amount of time students will spend on the school bus.

District officials said they would perform another bus study before any closing hearings to see how long it takes students to get home from school. Paul Minotti, Neshaminy’s director of operations, said students, at the most, could face an additional 10 to 15 minutes onto their commute home.

The closing proposal comes months after Samuel Everitt Elementary School in Levittown was closed as part of the plan. The school currently earns revenue through a rental agreement with the Bucks County Intermediate Unit.

Pirritano said renovations to Heckman, which sits on 18-acres of land, would cost up to $14 million. Energy upgrades to the Langhorne school, like those performed to other district elementary schools, would cost about $8 million but savings could not be guaranteed.

Along with energy and maintenance savings from closing the two schools, the district said they could obtain savings by having a smaller staff.

Pirritano said he personally does not think the district should sell the closed schools in case there is an “explosion” on students that would require Neshaminy to reopen the buildings. The board member said he thinks renting out the buildings is a better option.

“This is the starting process, not the ending process,” he told parents.