As mayor, I sometimes am frustrated by the pace of change. Growth, improvement, and investment take time, but often the effects of those investments need to be felt today. As a community, we are constantly weighing the need to deliver immediate impact while also recognizing that sustained improvement rarely comes quickly and almost always requires partnership with multiple stakeholders.
Investment in our community can come in many forms, but one of the most critical is our North Penn School District.
Often, when we talk about investment in the community we think of our roads, our electric system, or other critical infrastructure — all of which are essential to our long-term success. However, when people are looking for a place to call home, one of the critical questions they ask is “where will the kids go to school?” This reality inextricably ties our community’s success with the success of our school district, which is why the renovation of Knapp Elementary is so important to Lansdale as a whole.
As a construction manager and project manager, my father has been building and re-building schools his whole life. When I was young, my father would take us to project sites with him. He would explain to me what each room was going to be, how it was going to be built, and most importantly, the impact changing the environment would have on the kids that were going to be learning in that space. A new auditorium wasn’t just for congregation and gathering, it was fostering the imagination and creativity for the next sound engineer. The colors of a terrazzo floor were not random designs on the ground, they were primary colors that weaved through an elementary school helping first time students find the right wing of their new environment. Intentional design for intentioned learning.
With that in mind, I am happy to say, Knapp’s renovation is filled with focused intent.
The investment in re-building, upgrading, and improving Knapp Elementary breathes new life into Lansdale. By modernizing and building a space with intentioned design, the hallowed halls of Knapp Elementary will now attract more families to our area while also delivering a better education to every student that attends. Lansdale, and the whole community, benefits greatly from the re-development of our school district’s infrastructure. Their successes are our successes and together that investment will yield a better Lansdale long into the future.
Not so long ago I asked my father, “Why schools? You could build anything. Why keep building schools?” He told me that he enjoyed the impact of the work. The way a teacher would thank them for making their space better, seeing a student thrive in their new environment, or simply seeing a community come together and feel more hopeful about their future. That is the real power of investments in schools. It allows us, all of us, to believe that the future will be brighter because we have built something that might help make it so.
I would like to personally thank the North Penn School Board for their continued commitment to investing in our community and for being a great partner in making Lansdale a better place to live, work, and play. I am hopeful that Knapp’s re-development and renovation is just the beginning of a long-term vision for all our schools that will help us keep envisioning a better future together.
(Mayoral Musings is a weekly op-ed column submitted to North Penn Now, courtesy of Lansdale Borough Mayor Garry Herbert. The views expressed are his own.)
See also:
Mayoral Musings: Budgeting for More Police Officers
Mayoral Musings: Initial 2023 Draft Budget for Lansdale Carries No Tax Increase
Mayoral Musings: Residents to Receive Public Safety Survey in Coming Weeks
Mayoral Musings: A Busy Saturday on Deck for Lansdale
Mayoral Musings: New Businesses Coming to Lansdale
