Pennsbury Moves Forward With Study Of Possible Morrisville Merger

Could the Pennsbury School District and Morrisville School District become one? The answer is anyone’s guess, but the idea is getting a serious look.

With support from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Pennsbury School Board voted last month to hire Philadelphia-based Public Financial Management to study the feasibility of a possible merger. The news was first reported by The Advance of Bucks County.

The cost for the study is $195,000.

The outcome of the study won’t lock Pennsbury in to any decision, but it will give officials more information.

Pennsbury CFO Christopher Berdni recently said the price tag for the study will be covered by a state grant.

In a request for proposals, the Pennsbury School District issued the following outline for the study:

The Pennsbury School District issues this Request for Proposal from financial/educational consultants to conduct a reorganization feasibility study on the Pennsbury School District merging with the Morrisville School District. In addition to a full merger, the study will evaluate a model of Morrisville sending all or some students to Pennsbury School District on a tuition basis.

The goal in requesting this study is to determine if the merger or tuition relationship is in the best interest of both school districts, including, but not limited to, if instructional opportunities would be enhanced for all students at a similar or reduced cost to taxpayers.

Public Financial Management will begin their study in July and aim to deliver a final report in December.

The study will involve site visits, review of documents from the districts, finding possible efficiencies, interviews, public meetings, and a presentation with the firm’s findings.

The Pennsbury School District has more than 10,000 students and is made up of Falls Township, Lower Makefield Township, Tullytown Borough, and Yardley Borough, while the Morrisville School District has close to 850 students who come from Morrisville Borough.

The Morrisville Borough School District has struggled for decades due to its size and a lack of sufficient funding. It recently received an additional $1 million in state funding to help.

In April 2021, officials from the Morrisville School District reached out to Pennsbury to talk about a potential merger.

Prior to this decade, officials from the Morrisville Borough School District sent letters to the Bristol Borough, Bristol Township, Bensalem, Council Rock, Neshaminy, and Pennsbury school districts in an effort to generate 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.

In 2014, Pennsbury turned down an offer to merge with Morrisville.

Talk of a merger between Pennsbury and Morrisville happened since the 1970s.

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