Petition Launched Against Limekiln-Simmons School Property Sale

HATBORO / HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —A petition has been launched against the Hatboro-Horsham School District's impending sale of the Limekiln-Simmons property.

The 10.5-acre Limekiln Pike property was donated to the school district by Dorothea Simmons in 1933 and had been used as a school and for other district uses. A sale agreement was signed in 2016 for $593,140.

The petition, started Sunday by Wesley A'Harrah, states:

Dear Hatboro Horsham Administration and Board,

Please terminate the agreement to sell Limekiln-Simmons for conversion to housing now. This is an ethical issue of great importance. What you do reflects on the ethical values and impacts the resilience of our whole community and beyond. Please enable continued honoring of Dorothea Simmons’ gift as intended and allow the local community to continue to benefit from this educational space.

Click here to sign the petition

The sale was delayed after John and Peggy Ambler opposed the sale of the property at a Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas hearing.

Petition Details

Property for education, public service, and the community’s honor are under threat in Horsham.

Dorothea Simmons generously gifted a property, now known as Limekiln-Simmons, to the Hatboro-Horsham School District to support social good and education in our community.

The intent of her donation was clear—that this property would be permanently dedicated to educational use.

However, the Hatboro-Horsham School District has plans to sell this land to a developer who will turn it into a housing development, in a move that contradicts the gift's original intent of preserving open space and education.

This proposed sale and repurposing of the space not only goes against the ethics of this gift but also compromises our community's values and quality of life.

As an alternative to yet another housing development, a proactive group led by community-minded locals has proposed and lined up initial funding to turn this now-closed school and its associated 10-acre space into a nonprofit farming, food, and sustainability school to benefit the community—an innovative idea that would provide unique learning opportunities.

This is one fitting way of transforming Limekiln-Simmons into a unique educational environment that benefits the community without needing taxpayer funding.

There is a short time to act: the Hatboro-Horsham School District currently has the opportunity to terminate, at no obligation, its initial agreement to sell the property for conversion to housing, but its time window to terminate its agreement without obligation is down to a matter of weeks.

"We believe it's essential to honor Dorothea Simmons' wishes and uphold ethical standards by keeping the property within its intended purpose—as a beacon of education and public good. We also believe that a new educational environment for Horsham will create a better future for the township’s residents than yet another housing development," the petition states.

The petition asks residents to join the campaign to "secure a future that enriches our community and honors Dorothea Simmons' legacy."