North Penn Admins Field Questions on High School Renovations

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

North Penn School District Superintendent Todd Bauer, at podium, introduces fellow administrators and consultants at the start of a community forum on

The date for a decision on renovations to North Penn High School is fast approaching, and district officials are trying to answer as many questions as possible beforehand.

Staff held an informational forum on Tuesday night, answering resident questions about the planned renovations, while offering tours of the current school to show why those renovations are needed.

"The objective tonight is to clearly define the project, clearly define what’s at stake on January 16th, and outline what a yes versus a no is,” said Superintendent Todd Bauer, referring a scheduled voter referendum.

The Planned Referendum

In October the board authorized a voter referendum, to be held on Jan. 16, 2024, asking for taxpayer approval to exceed the state Act 1 index of a tax increase permitted each year to fund the borrowing of $97 million in debt needed to move ninth graders from the district’s three middle schools to the high school.

If the referendum passes, a $403 million renovation would add classroom space for 1,000 ninth graders to move to the high school complex, and if the referendum fails, district officials have proposed a $236 million renovation meant to update the utilities through the school, but with minimal expansion.

Throughout the year, district officials have made the case to the school board and public for a major renovation to the current high school, which currently holds roughly 3,000 students, and parts of which date back to the early 1970s.

On Tuesday night, Bauer led a team of administrators and consultants in a public community forum, offering tours of the high school to "well over 200 people,” then presenting plans and fielding questions from half again that many members of the public. Citing studies and presentations posted on the district’s "Reimagine NPHS” website, Bauer outlined the talks that began in 2018 on the need for repairs and upgrades to the high school’s utilities, after similar renovations of the high school’s Crawford Stadium and of Knapp Elementary School in Lansdale.

"We are now on the precipice of determining what direction are we going to take, moving forward,” Bauer said.

The 9th Grade Question

As the meeting was livestreamed on the district’s Facebook page and NPTV channel, the superintendent detailed how North Penn is the only high school in Montgomery and Bucks counties that does not have ninth grade on their high school campus, and showed a list of student sports, clubs and academic offerings that ninth graders currently can’t take or enroll in because they’re at the district’s three middle schools. In 2022 the district surveyed all ninth graders, and 13 percent start their day at the high school, then travel to their own middle school, but "64 percent said they would have, if they were here with their peers,” he said.

A recent study from Yale University examined the impact on student learning of 15,000 similar voter referenda to approve school expansion projects, and that study showed a statistically significant improvement in student test scores, and on property values in those districts, he said.

"They then disaggregated what type of upgrades, and how much did property values increase in that community? And the variation, depending on these types of upgrades, was a 12 percent (increase) due to expansion of classroom spaces, and a 26 percent impact on home values for athletic facility improvements,” he said.

Old and Outdated

He detailed how the original high school building was completed in 1971 and has not been renovated since, aside from an expansion to add K-Pod at the school’s entrance in the late 1990s, and showed a list of dozens of courses and sports teams not offered five decades ago.

"No longer is it an industrial age, where students are learning in an assembly line, where they’re all facing the same direction, they’re receiving information, and then they regurgitate it back on a test. That’s not what learning is supposed to look like, in 2023 and beyond. It’s supposed to be participatory, it’s supposed to be collaborative, critical thinking, problem solving, group work,” he said.

He showed an NPTV video looking back on the 1970s construction of the original school, the 1990s expansion, and the meetings in 2018 and 2019 where those talks began, followed by community engagement meetings held over the past year to get feedback from students, staff, and residents. Architect David Schrader showed the site plans and renderings first unveiled in September, depicting how the school’s current spaces would be reshaped, hallways widened, and circular J-Pod converted into a common area linked to STEAM learning, performance art, academic and athletic sections of the school.

If the referendum fails, the architect said, "the building stays essentially as it is. It does have a small music addition, but what happens inside is it gets fully gutted, and fully renovated, so it has all new finishes, and all new building systems. We are not reconfiguring the building in the ‘No’ vote, so the same spaces will be set up in the same ways that they currently are.”

If the referendum passes, a new addition on the south side of the school would replace the current J-Pod, with a new competition-size gym, a commons area connecting to a "Main Street” thoroughfare, widened to add space for students to pass each other, and opened to allow more daylight throughout.

"The idea behind Main Street is to take all of the current circulation points that run back and forth in the building, as well as what is currently the main office area, and take that down to essentially the structure,” Schrader said, showing videos of the current school hallways, some 12 feet wide and some as narrow as seven feet, superimposed below renderings of much wider concourses in a renovated school.

Voter approval of the referendum would also include a new through driveway connecting Sumneytown Pike at the south end of the campus with Snyder Road at the north end, with new parking near Crawford and a bus loop separate from student and parent drop-off areas. Bauer then detailed the differences between a yes or no vote on the referendum, and how a vote to move ninth grade to NPHS could lead to talks on the future of the district’s three middle schools.

Middle School Questions

"There’s questions about what happens with sixth grade. There’s questions about what happens with the three middle schools themselves. Do we need all three? Maybe two of those could be (grades) seven and eight. All three buildings need renovations,” Bauer said.

After CFO Steve Skrocki outlined the financial impact to taxpayers, several district staff took questions from the in-person audience and submitted online. Regarding the timeline, Bauer told the audience that if the referendum passes, the new addition could be open to students as soon as the 2027 academic year.

"The last thing to happen is ninth grade would move to the high school, because you’re utilizing that addition all throughout the project. Once the project’s all done, then ninth graders come (to the high school) — that is this year’s second grade class. They would be ninth graders seven years from now,” Bauer said.

An audience member asked about the competition gym, and Bauer said the high school’s current gyms are unable to host district or regional championships due to not meeting current accessibly standards, while the one would have bleachers with railings, full-size courts, and seating and stands that meet current standards. Another parent asked about security at the new school and whether large open spaces would be safer for students, and district Administrator for Secondary Education and Renovations Pete Nicholson said the finalized designs will have student safety and security in mind.

"There is a lot to be said for removing many of the nooks and crannies that exist in the current building, and being able to see portions of the building from one side to the other,” he said.

An online question asked how the current gym and natatorium spaces would be impacted, and Bauer said the current plans call for the new gym addition to have three courts, one of the school’s two current gyms to be upgraded and another removed, and the natatorium to be modernized: "new finishes, new tiling, new plaster, all of those things.”

Savings and Costs

Another questioner asked if the district had estimates for how much would be saved on busing costs by moving ninth graders to the high school, and Bauer said those costs would be "fairly minimal,” with Skrocki giving a number of roughly $100,000 per year. Another questioner asked if the large rooms and glass windows allowing natural light would increase the energy efficiency of the building, and Bauer said he’d heard from a project engineer that the school’s current utilities were antiquated.

"He said, the systems we currently have in North Penn High School, are the most inefficient he has seen for heating and cooling in any high school. Of course there’s going to be increased costs because the building is bigger, but the current spaces that exist, he said ‘I really don’t think you will see a difference,'” Bauer said.

An online questioner asked for a school board member’s perspective, and board President Tina Stoll said she was struck by seeing similar arguments made during debate on a second high school in the 1990s, repeated again now.

"When I go through this high school, it does look exactly like it did back in 1983 when I graduated here…it’s so past time to do something here,” she said.

"This is our next opportunity to make transformational change to our district, for a generation. I just want to make sure everybody is informed, and makes an informed vote on January 16th,” Stoll said.

Another questioner asked when the public would have input into the design and construction process, and Director of Facilities and Operations Tom Schneider said the district would host a required Act 34 public hearing before the project is finalized, outlining the latest plans and fielding feedback before work begins.

Another questioner asked who would be able to vote in the referendum, and if that was based on current registration lists or if voters would need to reregister. Referendum consultant Mike Paston said anyone who received a mail ballot for the recent November elections would get one for the referendum, while those who received absentee ballots may have to request another..

Resident Bill Patchell asked if the construction cost estimates included a new contract with the district’s teachers union, which is set to expire after the current schoolyear. Bauer said staff "have had preliminary discussions” with union leadership, "and when we have news for that, or an agreement in place, we would certainly communicate that.”

Another resident asked about whether the former WNPV radio property between the high school and Snyder Road would be addressed in either scenario, and Bauer said it would, but with different field uses depending on whether the ninth grade addition is made and the rest of the campus is reconfigured. The same resident asked if temporary modular classrooms would accelerate the construction of the addition, and Schrader said his firm looked at doing so, "they did not offset the cost” of adding those modulars for the addition.

Student Reaction

One last online questioner asked how students felt about the renovation plans, and high school senior Anna Weatherwax said she’s been the student representative on the facilities and operations committee for the past two years, and kept a close eye on the plans.

"I recognize that it’s something that I’m not going to see. I’m graduating next year, I won’t be here to experience the building. But I do know the importance of all these changes that we’re planning to make,” she said.

"My brother, his name is Jack, he’s an eight-year-old, he’s in second grade. So, like we mentioned, he will be in the first class of ninth-graders to go through the new high school. So as a senior walking through these halls — trying to walk through these halls, given how cramped they can be — I recognize that they need to be expanded. The classrooms need to be changed. It’s hard for us to learn in these environments. And seeing all these proposed changes means a lot to me as a student, because I can see how all of these ideas can come together and help the future generations, like my brother’s, help them go into a world that’s constantly changing. We need a building that changes with them.”

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Dec. 12 and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 6 p.m. on Dec. 18; for more information visit www.NPenn.org and for more on the proposed renovations visit www.ReimagineNPHS.com.

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