Old Hatboro-Horsham School Can Have New Use: Residents

HATBORO / HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —One of the hottest topics in the Hatboro-Horsham School District is once again expected to come up for discussion before the school board.

At last month's Hatboro-Horsham School Board meeting, Schools Superintendent Scott Eveslage outlined why the district is considering selling the old Limekiln-Simmons School property.

Residents Peggy and John Ambler have led the charge that the district should honor the original wishes by finding a use for it within the district.

The 10.5-acre property at 1125 Limekiln Pikewas 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.

Peggy Ambler told Patch that people who want to see the Limekiln Simmons gift for education be honored versus become more housing as proposed should come out to the school board meeting 7 p.m. Monday night at the Hatboro-High School auditorium.

She also said there is a private nonprofit food and sustainability school option that would have no cost to the district and would fittingly honor the purpose of the gift as well.

A petition drive was recently launched opposing the sale.

Peggy and John Ambler disgreed with some of the points made recently by Eveslage.

Eveslage, who said the school district has a right to sell the property, stated that some issues regarding the school sale are involved in ongoing litigation.

He clarified the district’s sale stance and detailed the sale’s lengthy challenge by John and Peggy Ambler.

Eveslage said litigation has gone through the Montgomery County Court, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court denial to hear the case, and a return to county court and a second appeal in Commonwealth Court.

It is again before the state Supreme Court, the superintendent added.

Costs for the district associated with the legal fight have exceeded $185,000, Eveslage stated.

The Amblers contend that the process of selling for housing began in 2016 and has not until recently included public discussion.

They said the district is aware of a proposal to operate a private, nonprofit, school to teach food and sustainability courses to high school graduates. The proposal honors the intent of the donor, Dorothea Hughes Simmons.

The property is a keystone portion of 232 Acres of combined open space without crossing a public road, the Amblers said.

"If the Limekiln Simmons parcel is sold to a developer, a domino effect may likely ensue," the Amblers said.

The Friends of Limekiln Simmons School propose to renovate and re-use the Limekiln Simmons property as a school whose mission is to improve human sustainability. This would be achieved through a direct-to-career education path for post-secondary students. Click here to learn more about the sustainability program.

The curriculum would consist of modern, sustainability-driven methods to grow/raise, process, sell, and distribute local food. The school would be a resource to provide information services, and train interns for local food producers.

It would prepare entrepreneurial students to sustainably farm locally on small acreages and create markets for their products, the Amblers said.

"This proposal would further build on and help carry forward environmental and sustainability programs of the Hatboro Horsham School District," they added. "It would augment Horsham Township’s intent to provide an environmentally-sound, healthy place to live and work. The restored historically preserved 1930’s grammar school would again provide classroom space. It would also house a public display of conserved images and artifacts from the school district’s rich natural resource and agricultural heritage such as from farm equipment, and buildings, grist mills, saw mills, and quarrying prior to modern machinery."

In 1932, Prospectville Grammar, now known as Limekiln Simmons School opened on Limekiln Pike, Horsham Township, on land donated by Simmons. The school was added onto in the 1950s and became Simmons elementary. After Simmons elementary was moved to Babylon Rd. in 1992,
Limekiln-Simmons served a variety of educational functions both for the District and privately such as a Montessori school.

The building was closed in 2011.