School Lane Charter Eyes Major Expansion

The K-8 School Lane Charter School is planning a three-pronged expansion that includes two facilities where high-schoolers could join the ranks.

School leaders have purchased the former Cornwells Skating Rink property next to their current building at 2350 Bristol Pike and plan a facility there to eventually house 12-14 classrooms for K-2 students.

“We would use the existing (one-story) structure, gutting the inside,” Principal and CEO Karen Shade explained Thursday.

The plan also includes a walkway to connect the new school to the existing one, with the latter eventually home to 24 classes for grades 3 through 8.

School leaders hope to open the new building to kindergartners only in early 2012, with first- and second-graders joining at the start of the 2012 school year in August of that year.

Shade said the new building would require either a zoning change or variance from Bensalem Township because the land is zoned for commercial use. She said she is hopeful that application could be the subject of a hearing early this summer.

The architect on the project is the Elias Organization, of Huntingdon Valley.

Shade said the purchase of the property before such approval is not seen as a big risk.

“Our feeling is that it is such a strategic property that if we can't get approval at least we could use it for outside grass space and parking,” she said.

Shade said it is too soon to say how much the new building will cost but the school plans to secure a loan for financing.

School Lane Charter, which opened in 1998, has an enrollment of 596. Shade said it has 400 students on an enrollment waiting list, with half primed to enter kindergarten.

The plan for the new K-2 building would allow School Lane to eventually educate 100 students per grade, with each class limited to 25 students, Shade says.

In addition to the K-2 building plan, School Lane is in the planning stages for two new sites that would include high school students.

A plan for a K-12 school in the University of Phoenix building at New Rogers Road and Business Route 1 was rejected last month by the Neshaminy school board, which cited a lack of community support. Rogers said Thursday that School Lane leaders plan to return to the board by the end of April with additional information it had sought.

“We're still hoping to open in September 2011,” she said.

In the early planning stages is another school for ninth- through 12th-grade students in Bensalem. Rogers said a prospective site has not been determined.

That school would open in August 2012 with just ninth-graders at a temporary location while construction is underway, she said.