Bensalem wants to return sixth-graders to middle schools. Officials weigh new school and major renovations
When the Bensalem School District closed former Neil Armstrong Middle School in 2005, it moved the district's sixth-graders back to their elementary schools and made room for the older Armstrong students at its two other middle schools.
Now the district wants to make its sixth-graders middle school students again.
They are considering renovating Robert K. Shafer Middle School or building a new, district-wide middle school that would replace both the aging Shafer and Cecelia Snyder Middle School.
Bensalem Superintendent of Schools Samuel Lee said the district is in preliminary discussions but wants "to bring Bensalem's sixth-graders back to middle school where we firmly believe it's more academically, developmentally and socially beneficial for the kids."
Overall, the district has about 6,400 students and projects that number will remain relatively stable over the next few years. There are aby 500 sixth-graders that would need to be added to the two middle schools, which currently serve seventh and eighth grades.
"In order to do that, we have to physically alter our footprint," Lee said. "We don't have enough room at Snyder or Shafer to accept 250 (more students)."
There are three options under consideration:
building a new school to house all the sixth through eighth grade students;
renovating and expanding both current middle schools which would be the least costly to build option but the most costly to maintain; or
closing Snyder and renovating and enlarging Shafer to accept all the district's middle schoolers.
Both schools are located along the two sides of Hulmeville Road, close to Street Road.
Lee said that if a new school is built, it would be on the Shafer property in front of the current school, which was built in 1980 and would be demolished.
The Snyder school which was built in 1960 would be repurposed or sold. That property is behind the Armstrong property on Street Road which was sold to Bucks developer Jignesh "Jay" Pandya, who is redeveloping it for a mixed commercial and residential project.
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Lee, who has been superintendent since 2015, said the middle schools were discussed at a recent business affairs committee meeting Feb. 2, but the issue isn't planned to be on the agenda at the full school board's next public meeting Feb. 22 because the district still needs to come up with cost estimates for the different proposals.
That's been difficult to do with the pandemic still ongoing, creating labor and material shortages.
The superintendent and district staff want to evaluate the options before presenting to the board what they consider are the best alternatives and what the impact would be on taxpayers. A community forum would also be held where the public could comment.
"We value our community's input, for sure," Lee said.
The district renovated its high school from 2012 to 2017. Lee said it was "incredibly challenging" doing the work with students attending classes in the building, but it turned out well.
He estimates it will be a three to four year process from the time the school board commits to a middle school plan until the project would be completed and the new or renovated facility could be dedicated and opened to students.
The project would most likely be financed through the district floating a bond issue. The district's bond rating has improved in recent years and its fund balance has increased for the third year in a row.
According to the latest budget presented in June, the balance at the end of 2020 school year had increased to more than $16 million.
The budget for 2021-22 is $163 million but taxes did not need to be raised.
Lee said that the $1.3 million in federal Cares Act funding and more than $20 million channeled to the district through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund established by the federal government and channeled through the state has helped the district greatly in getting through the pandemic but cannot be used for the school construction project.
Board member Marc Cohen said the school board knows that it needs to make changes with the middle schools both because it's better to have sixth-graders in middle school and because of the ages of the two middle schools and their maintenance needs, but the school board has not made any plans as yet.
"I would be most in favor of one brand new school," he said. "Nothing has been finalized."
To contact Peg Quann, email mquann@couriertimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bensalem considers options to renovate, replace aging middle schools
