School Board Votes To Take Down Lafayette, Maple Shade Elementary Schools

Two of the closed Bristol Township elementary schools will face the wrecking ball.

The Bristol Township School Board voted Monday evening to hire Premium Excavating and Demolition of Falls Township to abate any toxic materials and take down the Lafayette and Maple Shade elementary schools. The two schools have not yet found buyers and there is a cost to the district to secure the facilities and keep the power on.

Premium Excavating and Demolition will knock down Lafayette for $389,620 and Maple Shade for $206,595, according to school district Business Manager Josh Sweigard.

The schools, according to Sweigard, will be demolished in the coming months.

Lafayette sits on 20.9 acres of land that abuts county park property off Fayette Drive and Maple Shade is on a V-shaped 5.7-acre lot off Newport Road in Croydon.

Maple Shade, until its closure, was the oldest continuously operating public school building in the county. School district officials have told LevittownNow.com that the Maple Shade building is not registered as a historic landmark despite rumors in the community.

The school board also voted Monday to rescind the 2017 offer from nonprofit Interfaith Housing Visions to purchase Maple Shade for $180,000. The nonprofit backed out of the agreement in June. Interfaith Housing Visions had discussed a multi-phase plan with district officials that would include 55-plus housing for low-income residents, a possible community center, and housing for veterans.

Lafayette previously had an offer from Revonah Construction. The company had offered in 2017 to buy the John Fitch, Lafayette, and Abraham Lincoln elementary school buildings for $770,000. However, those plans fell through and so did an offer from a child care facility who had interest in renting Lafayette.

School board solicitor David Truelove said Monday that McGrath Homes is still on track to purchase the John Fitch Elementary School on Greenbrook Drive, Abraham Lincoln Elementary School on Plumtree Drive, and George Washington Elementary School on Crabtree Drive for $1.2 million. The district will be filing a petition to hold a court hearing in Doylestown before the sale can be finalized.

There is no date set for the court hearing, but Truelove said he expects it to happen in mid to late October.

In recent years, McGrath has looked toward the Levittown-area for a 55-plus project called St. Joseph Court along New Falls Road in Falls Township, the under-construction Stonehaven subdivision along Langhorne-Yardley Road in Middletown, and a not-yet-approved plan to create a housing dveelopment behind St. Michael the Archangel Church on Levittown Parkway in Tullytown.

School Board President Angela Nober said in early 2018 that the Bristol Township School District was seeking the best offers for the school system and the neighborhoods.

The closed Clara Barton Elementary School is being converted to the district administration, transportation, and maintenance hub. It is expected to be completed in 2019.