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Plans For $59 Million Bristol Twp. Middle School Move Forward

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By

Tom Sofield
A look at the Mill Creek Road-facing portion of the building.

The Bristol Township School District’s plan to reopen the closed Benjamin Franklin School in Levittown as a middle school is moving forward.

Bristol Township Council approved the renovation and addition plan at their Thursday evening meeting.

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The district’s plan calls for adding 38,000 square feet to the 118,500-square-foot existing building that has previously served as a school and then the district administration building. The district moved to a new administration building in 2019 at the old Clara Barton Elementary School next to Harry S. Truman High School.

Among the additions would be a new secured entryway facing Mill Creek Road, said Danielle Hoffer, of Schradergroup Architecture.

In addition to refreshing and renovating the school, the district would upgrade building systems, replace the roof and windows, and add a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics learning section, Hoffer said.

The look at the proposed upgrades.
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“This will basically be new when it’s completed,” Hoffer said.

The plan calls for refreshing and adding sports fields behind the school and connecting the campus to the neighboring Mill Creek Elementary School that opened a few years back. The proposed middle school’s bus loop would connect to the elementary school’s driveway.

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The plan call for no increase in staffing and decreasing building maintenance costs with the upgraded facility.

The project will bring upgrades to Mill Creek Road, including turn lanes for the middle school.

The overview of the plan for the site.

Construction of the new school is estimated to cost $53.9 million, which would be funded through borrowing. The goal is to use the state’s PlanCon process to get about 20 cents on every dollar reimbursed, officials said at an Act 34 hearing last month.

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Under the district’s ongoing facilities plan, the Franklin School would replace the circa-1958 Franklin D. Roosevelt Middle School on Veterans Highway (Route 413). The district has long sought to close the building and sell the land. The move has been discussed since at least 2012.

According to a district facilities plan provided to this news organization in 2013, the Franklin School was constructed in 1956 and renovated in 1991.

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Tom Sofield

Tom Sofield

Tom Sofield has covered news in Bucks County for 16 years for both newspaper and online publications. Tom’s reporting has appeared locally, nationally, and internationally across several mediums. He is proud to report on news in the county where he lives and to have created a reliable publication that the community deserves.