Questions Raised About Bensalem Middle School Plans

BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —With a community meeting next Tuesday on changes that could impact middle school students, residents are raising concerns about just what the Bensalem Township School District may be proposing.

Residents reacted this week on the Bensalem Proud Facebook page as the school district prepares for Tuesday's meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Bensalem High School Auditorium.

The school district and an architect will host presentations on the following:

• Middle school construction or renovation
• Sixth-grade move to middle school
• Elementary redistricting and building consolidation

One anonymous poster said the meeting flyer has caused a lot of confusion on how the project would affect the township's schools.

"They're going to tell the community that the Bensalem population is going to be declining, which if you've been around town the traffic and packed classrooms say otherwise," the anonymous poster stated.

The poster said that 20 years ago, the school district closed Armstrong Middle School because of a potential population decline which the poster said never happened.

"The closing of Armstrong led to an unexpected major impact at the elementary level as 6th grade was forced into the elementary schools," the poster said. "Fast forward 20 years and here we are again with the district following the same game plan."

One resident hoped that the outcome of the meeting would be school upgrades and that no schools would be closed.

School Director Stephanie Gonzalez Ferrandez responded that there could be the possibility of one elementary school closing with the middle schools expanding and the sixth grade being moved to the middle school. That would free up space in all of the elementary schools.

"I hope the superintendent will talk more about this on Oct. 1," the school director said. "There is an option in which none of the elementary school schools would close. My understanding is that it is related to costs."

Ferrandez stated that the school board has been considering upgrading and expanding the middle schools since before COVID-19.

"Because of that, some people feel that the district stopped doing major repairs/ improvements to Rush unless they were absolutely necessary," she said. "I wasn’t on the board the whole time so I can’t personally confirm that. For whatever reason, at this point, based on what has been presented in the public business committee meetings, Rush requires a lot of work. I certainly understand how it looks to some people that the district purposely set up Rush for closure. However, I really strongly encourage people to come out on Tuesday and hear all of the details."