North Penn School Leaders, Residents React to Referendum Defeat

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

The votes are in, and North Penn School District leaders and voters are reacting to the referendum defeat.

Administrators and school board members looked ahead on Wednesday, the morning after residents voted against a referendum meant to fund an expansion of North Penn High School.

"The only way you can respond at this point is that the community has spoken,” Superintendent Todd Bauer said Wednesday morning.

"We’re going to move forward, starting right now. The votes were roughly 42 percent to 58, so that’s clear. And that’s OK, that’s how things work: we left it up to the community, they spoke, and here we are,” he said.

Despite heavy snows and freezing temperatures, unofficial county vote totals reported 10,790 votes against the borrowing, versus 7,844 votes in favor, and only 166 absentee and mail-in votes pending review. According to the county, all results are unofficial until certified by the county’s board of elections during a public meeting.

For much of 2023 and the first weeks of January, board members and administrators had made the case for a "Yes” vote, which would have authorized $97 million in borrowing needed for a proposed $403 million renovation and expansion of the high school, and tax increases above the state limit to do so.

Throughout the year, administrators gave public presentations and tours highlighting the various failures and needs of the current high school, and presented to the community on the reasons to move roughly 1,000 ninth graders from the district’s three middle schools to the high school.

The vote margin proved enough to prompt reactions early Wednesday. School board President Tina Stoll said in a statement on behalf of the board that "while we are disappointed in the outcome of yesterday’s referendum election results, we remain confident in our decision to put this incredibly impactful decision about the future of our NPHS to the community for a vote. We have said from the beginning that this is true democracy and we would honor the community’s decision either way.”

Board VP Christian Fusco said in a statement that "I am disappointed in the outcome of yesterday’s referendum, but I accept the result. The voters spoke loud and clear. Ninth grade will remain in our middle schools and our high school will maintain the same 50-year-old footprint for decades to come.

"The conversation about whether to close Penndale or move our sixth grade out of elementary school is over. We will refocus our vision on what is possible and explore what can be done moving forward. Many people worked very hard to reimagine North Penn and I am exceedingly grateful to them for their sacrifice and commitment to an idea that simply was not meant to be,” he said.

Voters Spoke

In a Facebook live stream early Wednesday morning, Bauer said while he personally was disappointed in the result, he hopes the voters set an example of respecting others’ points of view, even if a vote doesn’t go their way.

"You can’t stand up on stage and say repeatedly that this is the truest form of democracy, and then cry in your Cheerios. This is where we are, and it’s my expectation that the adults involved will set a good example for students. We’re not going to argue about it, we’re not going to spread misinformation, we’re going to say ‘The community has spoken, and here we are,'” Bauer said.

Ninth Grade Stays

While many questions remain, including the final design of the renovated school, the primary question that’s been discussed since 2019 is now answered: ninth grade will stay at the district’s three middle schools.

"We’re going to do what’s best for kids, given the parameters and the outcome. We now know, North Penn High School is going to be grades 10 to 12, so we’re going to renovate it,” Bauer said.

Parents have raised concerns for years about a lack of air conditioning in the three middle schools repeatedly in recent years, and staff have said those three schools are also high on the district’s to-do list, but planning could not proceed until decisions were made on the high school. With that vote now in, Bauer said Wednesday, work on the middle schools is "not happening in the next five years, but it needs to happen.”

Comments in the Facebook livestream voiced both sides of the debate: Pat Cusat Hartzel said "Being a senior citizen, and a home owner, we are on fixed incomes. Building a new building onto the high school, would raise all of our school taxes.”

Stephanie Baer said "It’s so sad we can’t put our community and our kids first,” while Melissa Johnson Smithers said "Thank you everyone for trying to make North Penn a better place for our kids. I am very disappointed in our district’s votes.” Jennifer Crow Goewey said the result was "Very unfortunate, ninth graders should be with the rest of the high school. The weather deterred many voters and the folks without kids voted ‘no,'” while Andi Redwitz Lesher said "I’m frustrated because my kid will be right in the middle of the construction. Hoping we can make the best of it.”

Lots to Say

Elsewhere online, Towamencin supervisor Kofi Osei — who led a public campaign where that township’s residents approved a new home rule charter meant to oppose that township’s pending sewer sale last year — saw parallels, saying he was "very happy to see that the school district is immediately accepting of the referendum results and the fiscal constraints that comes with them.”

In the "North Penn Reimagined” advocacy group organized by vote proponents, resident Paul Edelman said he thought "the results are disappointing to say the least. But the board and the administration did everything possible, to finally fix, what should have been dealt with decades ago, ignored by past boards.”

Katie Kelley said she thought the issue was caught up in partisan politics, and said she "watched as many people openly attacked known Republicans on here, on other pages, or in general talked bad about Republicans instead of trying to understand their viewpoint and the viewpoint of Democrats who planned on voting no.”

Allie Hyson said "future generations of kids and teachers will have the same 50 year old, crumbling, prison-like building to sludge through for the next foreseeable future… that high school is the heartbeat of our community, and the way the vote went just shows how little value two-thirds of the voters place on it.”

Former candidate Jessie Bradica said she thought "it’s great to see the community hold this administration accountable and responsible. They can always go back to their 2019 plans where they were able to bring a 21st century reno(vation) and a ninth grade center for just about the the cost of their current basic reno plans.”

Many Plans

During the public presentations ahead of the referendum, staff had said that a second high school in the district had been considered early on, but deemed too costly. They said a ‘Yes’ vote would allow the construction of new classroom space that students could occupy as the various "pods” of classrooms around the current school were renovated, while a ‘No’ vote would mean modular classrooms would need to be added to create that space.

In the Wednesday livestream, Coordinator of Communications Media Bob Gillmer asked what the renovation timeline looks like with the votes now in, and Bauer reiterated comments from an earlier livestream, saying that much of the planning work on the renovations would not have been as public without the referendum and public information campaigns.

"Given yesterday’s outcome, our timeline has not changed. It is still our objective to have a shovel in the ground in the summer of 2025. We just now know that we’ll have modular construction, as opposed to an addition to try to add ninth grade to the facility.”

First Steps

The first public step will likely be to move the district’s transportation center, including a maintenance garage, fuel station and dispatch center for 100-plus school buses, off of the high school campus and to another site. Bauer said staff are "working really hard on that behind the scenes,” and said those wondering how a high school could keep kids in the classroom during a major renovation, should look to Knapp Elementary in Lansdale where a similar renovation was done, with kids in school, from 2020 through 2022.

"When you renovate a building, especially when you don’t have a large addition to that building, there’s going to be disruption for quite a number of years, because it’s not easy. Just ask our Knapp community — having school open in a construction zone is challenging. Couple that with a high school, it’s going to be very challenging, but we’ll do our best,” Bauer said.

Bauer added thanks to district staff, particularly the communications team who handled publicity and outreach efforts through the referendum process, administrator Pete Nicholson who gave tours for hundreds of residents to see the current school, CFO Steve Skrocki for presenting on the financials of the referendum, and the rest of the administrative team for scoring relatively high turnout.

"Terribly disappointed in the weather, but to have nearly 26 percent of registered voters come out for a special election, doesn’t sound great — it’s actually pretty good. I’m proud of the effort everybody put forward,” he said.

Bauer added thanks to the area residents who made their voices heard throughout the process, and said they’ll have plenty of chances to give further feedback as plans are finalized, vetted, and bid out before construction begins.

"We’ll keep kids’ safety at the forefront of everything, and the high school is going to be beautiful when it’s done. It will be new inside. That’s the objective. I’m hopeful that we move forward with the paperwork, and the process, and the design. People will hear more and more over the next year, and then hopefully the project commences next summer,”

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Jan. 18, at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock St. in Lansdale. For more information visit www.NPenn.org and for more on the high school renovations visit www.ReimagineNPHS.org.

This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit www.thereporteronline.com.