Central Bucks School District study eyes grade realignment, closing Linden Elementary

Nearly a decade of declining enrollment in the Central Bucks School District could mean a major shift in grade levels and shuttering an elementary school in Doylestown Borough.

An architecture firm based in Mechanicsburg, Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates, suggested the district realign its grade structure and close Linden Elementary School after completing a more than two-year demographics study showing enrollment has dropped nearly 3,000 students since the 2010-2011 school year.

During an informational meeting on Nov. 3, Fred Withum, head of educational planning for the firm, said his team reviewed the district’s 23 school buildings and population with a goal of 80% capacity in elementary schools and 75% for secondary schools.

Withum added that while there are more people now in the nine towns that make up Central Bucks, commercial development and an aging population have meant fewer new students enrolled.

“There are more residents in the district than there were in 2010. There are more houses and there are more households, but there are fewer students,” Withum said.

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The 9/11 terror attacks drove some in larger cities to suburban communities like Bucks County, with Central Bucks seeing enrollment rise from 17,305 students in the 2000-2001 school year to its peak 2009-2010 enrollment of 20,436 students.

The school district currently puts grades K-6 in its 15 elementary schools, grades 7-9 in five middle schools and grades 10-12 in three high schools. Withum said the current grade alignment was made following the post-9/11 population boom.

Nearly all of that growth is gone now with the district’s student body shrinking annually since the 2010-2011 school year. Central Bucks lost about 2,330 students by the 2019-2020 school year and another 600 students left during the pandemic, Withum said.

The district currently has about 17,499 students.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education estimates that enrollment could drop as low as almost 14,000 students by the end of the decade, but Withum said that estimate doesn’t adjust for parents who left the district for private schools during the pandemic.

“Our opinion is that you’re probably going to see some of those students continue to come back from private and parochial schools and online schools over the next couple of years, so our enrollment projections end up being a little bit higher than the state's” Withum said.

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“By 2030, you should be starting to level off at around 15,000 students or 15,500, somewhere in there,” Withum added.

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While student totals have been shrinking overall, residential development in parts of the district have led to overcrowding in some elementary schools.

Withum said several elementary schools have had to make dedicated art rooms and computer labs into a traditional classrooms, creating a “wide range of disparity” in program access districtwide.

Art and computer programs in those overcrowded schools are available, its just that equipment has to be carted around as needed.

Shifting the grade alignments to something more “traditional,” ending elementary school in the fifth grade and starting high school at ninth grade, could help even out that program disparity and better utilize the building space in the district.

Even with that realignment, however, Withum said the district should still consider shutting down Linden Elementary School.

Linden Elementary in Doylestown could be closed

Withum’s team reviewed two other schools as it considered consolidation, Doyle and Kutz elementary schools, but Linden “rose to the top” of that short list for a few reasons.

Kutz, at 1950 Turk Road in Doylestown Township, is a smaller school, but it’s also in better physical shape than Linden, which also has a higher potential cost considering future repairs and improvements.

The land value for Linden, which sits on Linden Avenue between East Street and Swamp Road, is also higher than the other two schools.

Linden is also in the center of the district, but so is Doyle Elementary School at 260 N. West St. in Doylestown Borough, less than a two-mile drive from Linden Avenue.

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Doyle and “its sister middle and high schools” already formed a “K-12 grouping in the center of the district” which made Linden the better option to close, according to Withum.

Students at Doyle move on to Lenape and Central Bucks High School West. Linden students move on to either Lenape or Holicong middle schools and Central Bucks West or East for high school depending on their address.

The report also focused on limiting the impact on bus routes or a need to further rearrange the district in the future.

Central Bucks Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh said prior to Withum’s presentation that this was the first public presentation of the recommendations but another meeting for public input would likely follow later this winter.

Withum said the district and his team would then work on redrawing the boundaries for the elementary schools based on public comments and eventually a full plan would be considered by the school board.

The board could ultimately choose not to change anything in the district, however, Withum said a redistricting is likely inevitable.

“Your schools that are most crowded also happen to be in the areas that have the greatest potential for continued residential development. So, even if you choose to do nothing, I believe you’re still … going to have to do some redistricting,” Withum said.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Study: Central Bucks should close Linden, realign grades