Parents Pack Hearing On Potential Closure Of Neshaminy Elementary School

Roughly 250 people attended a state-mandated hearing on the potential closure of Langhorne’s Oliver Heckman Elementary School.

Many of the parents and community members who spoke were against the closing of the elementary school that sits on the Langhorne Borough and Middletown border. The school, which currently has about 380 student attending, has served the Langhorne, Langhorne Manor and Middletown community since its construction in 1966.

The hearing allowed the district and its hired professionals to speak about the proposed closure. Parents and community members were then given the chance to make their voices heard. The session was not question and answer with the public, but a time for the community to enter testimony about the proposal.

The testimony given at by district officials and professionals outlined the plan to close the school. Officials cited dropping enrollment, predictions that the student population would continue to decline, the condition of the aging school and the cost of upgrades to the current 54,000-square-foot building. Neshaminy School District Interim Superintendent Dr. Gloria Hancock pointed out the school was in need of security upgrades.

Heckman has been listed for possible closure on Neshaminy’s “roadmap to the future” plan for years. The closures would be part of the district’s plan to save money by consolidating schools. A hearing on the potential closure of Lower Southampton Elementary School was scheduled for Thursday evening. Last year, Samuel Everitt Elementary School was closed and rented to the Bucks County Intermediate Unit.

Public comment took the majority of the three-hour-long meeting.

Langhorne Chief of Police Steve Mawhinney was among the first speakers and told of his experiences at the school. Mawhinney said the school is a special environment for area kids. The chief said he tries to know all the students names, their likes and wants them to have a good experience dealing with a public safety official.

Several parents mentioned the community petitions and support there is against closing the school.

“Honestly, I’m very emotional. Take a look, read what we have shown you – listen to us,” Middletown resident Angie Manning, a teacher in New Jersey, told the board.

Langhorne Borough Council member Kathy Horwatt reviewed the history of the property and announced she was in support of keeping the school open. During her comments, Horwatt said the Heckman property has been used for education since the 1700s.

One man, a resident of Middletown, said he picked his home over a cheaper one in Newtown due to the quality education provided at Heckman.

Musician Keith Goodwin of Langhorne spoke up and said the school should remain open. He cited teachers at the school for pushing him toward music. Goodwin is a member of popular indie folk band Good Old War.

Neshaminy High School student Madison Pickul read a portion of her article from student newspaper The Playwickian during the hearing. She said after that she was worried about moving the elementary students to different buildings. She also spoke of the importance of smaller schools like Heckman.

Several Heckman parents raised concerns over the fact the majority of the students would be redistricted to the now-under construction school at the Tawanka site in Lower Southampton or Pearl Buck Elementary School in Levittown. From concerns over busy roads buses would travel on to how long the students could wait without going to the bathroom, parents raised numerous concerns.

With added transportation time, Angela Clark of Langhorne Manor worried that students could spend more than 8.5 hours away from home during the school day.

Former Langhorne Mayor Chris Blaydon said he was “particularly troubled” by the fact former Heckman students would have to travel on hilly Brownsville Road to get to the new 800-student elementary school in Lower Southampton.

Democratic congressional candidates Shaughnessy Naughton and Lower Makefield-based State Rep. Steve Santarseiro, a former teacher, both attended the meeting and spoke against closing Heckman. The two candidates said they were asked to come by Neshaminy residents.

“Local schools work,” Santarseiro said.

Middletown resident Deb Harker raised issue that Santarseiro was the first speaker at the long meeting and felt he should have had to wait until the end because he wasn’t even a Neshaminy resident.

Harker and a few other residents spoke in favor of the consolidation plan.

“I ask you to please move forward with the Neshaminy plan for the future,” she said to the school board before being booed by the audience.

LeAnne Hartpence of Middletown said she believed it was “prudent to stay the course with the roadmap.” She also urged the district and board to make “decisions that are financially sound.”

The board announced residents will be able to submit written testimony to the district office until February 5.

The school board will be able to make a decision on the school by April 7 at the soonest.