Today: Central Bucks To Brief Public On Grade Realignment Process

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Central Bucks School District will hold a special meeting on Feb. 21 to update the community on plans to realign the district’s grade structure and implement a full-day kindergarten program across the district.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Tohickon Middle School, 5051 Old Easton Road, Doylestown.

The district’s realignment committee, made up of staff, parents, students, and community members, has been studying the plan for the past seven months. At the meeting, committee leaders will provide an update on its progress in analyzing the changes and sharing a potential timeline for next steps.

The administration announced in August 2023 plans to bring full-day kindergarten to the district beginning with the 2025-26 school year.

It also recommended a significant grade level realignment that would move the district to a K-5 elementary, 6 to 8 middle school, and 9 to 12 high school grade level configuration. That change would also be effective with the 2025-26 school year.

Moving the ninth grade to the high school will afford those students more opportunities and would put them on a level playing field with their peers across the region, the state and the nation, administrators said.

The same would be true for middle-level students providing them with access to higher-level arts, electives, extracurricular activities, and sports.

The grade realignment would also open up space at the elementary level to bring in the full-day kindergarten program. The district currently offers only a half-day program - a morning or an
afternoon session.

If implemented, it would signify one of the biggest changes systemically in the district in the last 25 years. The last time the district underwent a major systemic change was the move to block scheduling.

The grade realignment was recommended by Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates (CRA), a demographics firm hired by the school district to analyze enrollment trends, efficiencies and the utilization of space across the district.

For the latest information about realignment, visit https://www.cbsd.org/cbrealign.

The school board is expected to decide the next steps at its March 12 meeting.