Bristol Township, Pa. To Replace 9 Elementary Schools With 3 New Ones
By Brad Segall
LEVITTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- With an eye to the future, the Bristol Township School District, in Bucks County, has broken ground on two new, state-of-the-art elementary schools.
The district projects it will have 800 more elementary school students in the next six years. And with an aging infrastructure, it needed to find a way to bring their education into the 21st century.
Construction will begin soon in Levittown on two schools -- a third is in the works -- and eventually the nine existing elementary schools will be merged into the three new schools.
"Our buildings have served the community incredibly well for an awful long time, which begets our challenge," says schools superintendent Dr. Sam Lee. "They're old and they've seen better days, and they are becoming increasingly costly to maintain."
The new buildings come at a cost of about $37 million, each but there will be minimal impact on taxpayers because of favorable interest rates and significant savings that are expected when the aging schools close their doors.
The first two schools are expected to open in August of next year. Each new school will consist of two buildings connected by a common gym and cafeteria.