Now that Neshaminy has OK to build Maple Point Elementary, what about its other Levittown schools?

With the approval of a new $35 million elementary school this month, the Neshaminy School District will continue its review of how to redistrict students and its long-term building needs that could impact other schools.

The Middletown Township’s board of supervisors gave preliminary and final land development approval of the planned 900-student-capacity Maple Point Elementary school at its Feb. 7 meeting.

The 88-acre property where the two-story, 119,000-square-foot school will be built currently includes Maple Point Middle School and the building will be constructed on the campus near Core Creek Park near where Langhorne-Yardley and Woodbourne roads intersect.

It could open as early as the fall of 2023, officials said.

As part of the “Neshaminy Road Map” project the district began in 2014, Neshaminy had weighed the options of renovating one of its oldest schools — Pearl S. Buck Elementary on Top Road in Levittown that was constructed in 1968 — over focusing its efforts on building a new school in the district’s north end.

Neshaminy to consider other Levittown schools

With a decision made on the new school, the work of the district's facility planning is far from done. It's an ongoing process, said Neshaminy Superintendent Rob McGee.

Current and previous school boards, he told the township supervisors, have strategically examined the age and renovation needs of buildings in Neshaminy’s three regions — Lower Southampton, Langhorne and Levittown — and have considered closing buildings that were less likely to be successful in the long term as far as renovations go.

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“Assuming we're successful, we're going to move to Levittown and take a look at (Walter) Miller, (Albert) Schweitzer and (Herbert) Hoover (elementary schools), and decide the conditions of those buildings and go through the same process,” McGee said of the district's plans after their current project.

When the elementary school opens, McGee said the goal is to send students from Pearl S. Buck and some students from Tawanka to the new location, while sending some students from Joseph Ferderbar Elementary School to Tawanka.

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“When this is all done, it's hoped that two elementary schools go to Maple Point (Middle School) and two elementary schools go to Sandburg (Middle School),” he said, adding that the redistricting plan hasn’t yet been approved.

The superintendent said Neshaminy does not currently have a plan for Pearl S. Buck, though its location would be considered as a possible site if the district decides on a new school for Levittown.

The school wouldn’t close until September 2023 at the earliest, according to McGee. “That's if we hit every mark; otherwise, it would be September 2024,” he said.

The new Maple Point Elementary School is targeted to open in the fall of 2023.

What will the new Maple Point Elementary look like?

The school’s design, according to Spiezle Architectural Group, will be somewhat based on that of Neshaminy’s first new primary school since 1968, Tawanka Elementary on Brownsville Road in Langhorne. It opened in 2016 and was built for approximately $31 million.

“We're not tearing down a wooded area, we're not expanding development through an area that wasn't previously developed, but capitalizing on already developed property,” said Scott Downie, principal at Spiezle Architectural Group.

“It not only reduces the impact, but also reduces the cost to the district because they're not purchasing property or developing a virgin property to implement the project,” Downie said.

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Taxpayers weighed in on the proposal at a hearing in December. Some expressed concerns about traffic if the new school were to be built and others supported the project rather than the costly repairs that would go into renovating Pearl S. Buck.

The district plans to secure a $35 million bond to construct the new school, district solicitor John Torrente told the board of supervisors.

McGee, who attended kindergarten at Pearl S. Buck in 1970, told supervisors it would cost around $25 million to update the aging school’s HVAC, security, technology and additional space. Building new was a better options, officials said.

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Some of the traffic-related plans for the new school include adding a traffic signal at Woodbourne Road and the new school’s driveway, along with a minor widening of Woodbourne Road to add left-turn lanes into the school and into the Core Creek Park entrance.

Gilmore and Associates project manager Stacey Jensen explained that flashing school signals would be installed on Woodbourne Road, which would be turned on during arrival and dismissal times. Jensen added that there’s not currently one for the middle school on Woodbourne Road.

A left-turn lane would also be added to the Langhorne-Yardley road entrance to the school, along with a rapid flashing beacon signal at Briggs Road for its existing crosswalk.

“These improvements are going to be coordinated with PennDOT, as both Langhorne-Yardley and Woodbourne are state roads, and the traffic signal at Langhorne-Yardley and Woodbourne Road is currently being assessed for another project by PennDOT,” Jensen said.

“We'll work with that PennDOT team to make sure our improvements align with the state's work," she said.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Middletown OKs Neshaminy's Maple Point Elementary school plans