The Pennsbury School District is looking at the possibility of conducting a study that will examine a potential merger with the much smaller Morrisville Borough School District.
At the Thursday evening school board meeting, officials said the district will put out a request for proposals for a study to look at a possible merger.
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“We’re not even at step one,” Pennsbury Superintendent Dr. Thomas Smith said. “We have to see how much the study costs and then we have to see if we want to do the study.”
Pennsbury Chief Financial Officer Christopher Berdnik explained that some options the district would want the study to look at are governance, redistricting of board seats, finances, tax impacts, funding, enrollment and redistricting of students, transportation, and union contracts.
The Morrisville Borough School District, which has about 800 students, has again put forward the idea of merging with the 10,000-student Pennsbury School District.
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Earlier this year, Morrisville Borough School District Superintendent Jason Harris wrote a letter to Pennsbury asking for an “opportunity to discuss possibilities.”
The Morrisville Borough School District has long struggled due to its size and a lack of sufficient funding.
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Pennsbury School Board President Christine Toy-Dragoni said in April that the board would consider talking to the Morrisville Borough School District, noting no formal discussion had taken place.
Over the years, officials from the Morrisville Borough School District have sent letters to the Bristol Borough, Bristol Township, Bensalem, Council Rock, Neshaminy, and Pennsbury school districts to try to spur interest in merger talks. Morrisville Borough school officials have previously pointed to additional tax revenue for a suitor, two buildings in the district, and benefits for area students as selling points.
Pennsbury previously turned down an offer to merge with Morrisville in 2014.
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Proposals for a merger between Pennsbury and Morrisville have been floated since the 1970s.
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