Students Return To Class In The New Hope-Solebury School District

NEW HOPE, PA — Students in the New Hope-Solebury School District return to school this week for the opening of the 2023-24 school year.

The new year opens with an enrollment of around 1300 students, the high school ranked 9th in Pennsylvania and No. 432 nationally by U.S. News & World Report, and its middle school designated as a National Blue Ribbon School.

"Our district has been recognized for its comprehensive curriculum, preparing students for colleges and careers, student academic performance, an outstanding faculty and staff, and extensive extracurricular programming by U.S. News and World Report, Niche.com, the NAMM Association and others," said Superintendent Dr. Charles Lentz. "We are proud of these achievements and will continue to provide an exemplary educational environment in which all
students can establish a foundation for future success."

This week, students are returning to rooms and hallways boasting fresh coats of paint, newly installed epoxy flooring at the upper elementary school and at the middle school, a redeveloped middle school office, and new flexible learning spaces, which Dr. Lentz called "exciting and innovative." He said the new spaces will provide "opportunities for the district's Lunch and Learn initiative and for collaborative learning.

"Our operations and custodial teams worked incredibly hard over the summer to get our buildings ready for our staff and our students," said Lentz. "Incredible amounts of work have been done in getting the buildings ready - cleaning, building new furniture, and organizing buildings - for student arrival."

Two new administrators have joined the staff just in time for the start of the new school year - David Shapp and April Borgeson.

Shapp comes to New Hope-Solebury as the district's new transportation manager. He comes here from Bensalem where he coordinated transportation for the district. Prior to Bensalem, he worked in the transportation department at the Central Bucks School District. He joins New Hope-Solebury with 10 years of service in transportation. He also serves as an EMT and a firefighter.

Borgeson joins the district as its new human resources director. She comes to New Hope-Solebury from the Central Bucks School District where she served as assistant director of human resources.

Prior to joining Central Bucks, Borgeson worked as human resources generalist for the Bucks County Intermediate Unit and served as the human resources liaison to the Morrisville School District. She is a graduate of Holy Family University with a Master's degree in human resource management.

The new school year also begins with two new Doctors of Education on the administrative staff.

Middle School Principal Erik Pedersen and Lower Elementary Principal Jennifer Bloom have earned their doctoral degrees - Dr. Pedersen from Drexel University and Dr. Bloom from Delaware Valley University.

Dr. Pedersen's research focused on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and examined various leadership styles proven to be effective in navigating the current school climate. He also earned his superintendency certification.

Over the summer, the school district continued to "communicate out to the nation some of the great things happening at New Hope-Solebury," reports Dr. Lentz.

The district was invited to present two workshops at the American Association of School Administrators Learning 2025 Summit held in Washington, D.C., and to share "some of the things that we're doing here," said the superintendent.

The workshops highlighted the district’s most groundbreaking innovations, including the launch of a state-of-the-art STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) education facility and its signature APEX (Active Personal Educational Experience) internship program for seniors.

AASA's Learning 2025 Project is a national initiative driving future-focused capacity-building within the education system. The Summit showcased a range of successful and innovative practices from across the nation that are reshaping classrooms and offered workshops to support leadership development, innovation and classroom culture.

In addition, Dr. Bloom presented at the National Association for Elementary School Principals on her kindergarten placement process, developed and piloted last year by the district's team of Lower Elementary educators. The innovative strategy uses academic and behavioral data to build balanced kindergarten classrooms in order to maximize instructional time for both students and teachers.

"We're starting to get a lot of notoriety both nationally and statewide for the work that we're doing at New Hope-Solebury," said Dr. Lentz.

For links to this year's 2023-24 school calendar, menus, and family portal, click here.