North Penn School District Residents, Staff Look to Future After Referendum Voted Down

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

The vote is now over, but the debate is far from finished.

North Penn School District residents, staff and school board members are all continuing to sound off on the future of North Penn High School, in the wake of the district’s referendum vote against expanding the high school renovation project to include ninth grade.

"We can’t be leaders of children, and of a school district, if we’re going to have sour grapes as a result. The community spoke. We will move forward. That is the will of the community, and this is going to be a fantastic high school,” said Superintendent Todd Bauer at the January 18th school board meeting.

"We are already trying to incorporate aspects of the design. We’re already trying to see what is possible,” he said.

On Jan. 16 voters in the district delivered a verdict on months of public presentations by the board, voting against a referendum asking for permission to borrow $97 million, with tax increases above the state’s Act 1 limit, for a planned expansion of the high school, which would have added space to move roughly 1,000 ninth grade students from the district’s three middle schools.

District officials had made the case at length prior to the special election vote that a $403 million expansion project would reconfigure the current campus, add new space for use during renovations of the current school, and eliminate congestion and accessibility concerns throughout the current school structures that date back to the early 1970s, while the smaller $236 million renovation would update utilities and equipment but largely maintain the school’s current footprint.

In the first public school board meeting since the vote, residents and officials from communities within the district sounded off on the results, and the messages the board should take away.

Sounding Off

"You know why you lost the referendum? Because the ‘open concept’ you were dreaming about, was the open concept of taking money out of my wallet,” said resident Bill Patchell.

Architectural renderings showing wide concourses, expanded hallways and large windows in the renovated school were not enough to sway voters on fixed incomes or struggling to make ends meet, he said, while dealing with near-annual tax increases from the board for operational expenses.

"You wasted so much money on this referendum — time, energy and treasure. You were wrong. Just sit there and admit you were wrong — you need to apologize, for leading us on this wild goose chase,” he said.

Christine Coyne said she has a child in middle school, another in elementary school and two younger, and thought of them while reflecting on the referendum result.

"I’m sad that it didn’t pass. I’m sad for what it means for our community, and for my children, and for my neighbors that do or do not have children. I’m sad that we have neighbors that don’t want to fix past mistakes,” she said.

"It’s upsetting, the short-sightedness that maybe some of our neighbors don’t see, to invest in our public education, and not realize the dividends that would pay off in the future,” she said, before urging the board: "I’m here to ask you not to give up. I hope you have a plan B…make it a learning experience, and learn what has worked, and what didn’t, and what would pass with a special election, and what won’t.”

Neil McDevitt, mayor of North Wales, said he also thought of his children, specifically his son who goes to college in Syracuse, New York, where the Onondaga Nation requires itself to look to the future when making decisions.

"The tribe’s government requires them not to only think about today, the members of the tribe today, but seven generations into the future. What are we doing to make sure people today are taken care of, but our generations down the road are as well?” he said.

"You asked the community to look beyond the horizon. You asked the community to envision a future that tackles some of these problems we have today, and some problems we don’t know are going to happen until years down the road,” McDevitt said; "Please know that while some may disparage and denigrate your work, and your characters, they do not speak for all of our community.”

‘Get Mad’ at the Past

Rob McCarney said he has a son in elementary school, and urged those upset with the referendum result not to get upset with their neighbors, but with earlier boards.

"Get mad about 50 years of not taking care of infrastructure. Get mad about the ‘greatest generation’ that built these buildings, and built these schools, and then abandoned them over the years, and didn’t take care of them like they should have,” he said.

He then asked the board to revisit plans presented in 2019 for renovating and expanding the high school before several subsequent years of supply chain and inflation disruptions that raised costs, and challenged the board and its consultants to do more with less: "We know the district has a cap: we cannot exceed Act 1. The voters have spoken. I implore this board, the job now: find a way to get it done under Act 1. The voters have said this is what they want. Let’s do it. Find a way.”

Towamencin supervisor Kofi Osei, who led a public push for voters in that township to approve a home rule charter last year amid a debate on that township’s sewer sale, thanked the board for putting the question to residents.

"It was an ambitious project, and I think it was appropriate to ask voters whether or not they wanted to spend that money. But the result is the result,” he said.

Osei added that he’s heard concerns about costs, and projections in recent township comprehensive plan meetings that anticipate increased population growth in that township, and said the board should revisit the possibility of a second high school if those projections prove true.

"I do think, at some point, we probably need another building. And I was kind of hoping for a ‘Yes’ vote, to have that flexibility. But the result is the result. So as we are making decisions, and looking forward, if there is any opportunity to build a second high school, particularly in Montgomery Township, I think we should at least consider that. And if we need to put that to another referendum, I think that’s appropriate,” he said.

‘Correct the Mistakes’

Karalyn McGrorty Derstine saw she saw the vote as an "opportunity for our district. I saw opportunity to correct the mistakes that happened in the 1980s, the kicking of the can, the dilapidated facilities in which our students are going to school.”

"I didn’t see a modest increase in taxes as a pocket being picked. I saw it as an opportunity to address an issue that we are dealing with, as a community and as a society. I see this ‘No’ as a setback, and in my life I view setbacks as an opportunity to change course,” she said, and has subsequently created a nonpartisan Facebook group titled "Fair Funding NP Mobilization” to organize and advocate for reforms to state education funding.

Margaret Burke thanked the board members and staff for their efforts ahead of the referendum, and asked if the board and/or their architects had taken into account students with special needs or accessibility issues in developing their designs for the renovations within the current building footprints. Facilities and operations committee chairwoman Cathy Wesley said she had heard assurances from the architect during design meetings that such concerns "would be an integral part of the design work.”

Working together

Beth Staab, a Montgomery Township supervisor, said she was also "feeling a little dashed” about the referendum results, until she returned home that day to see a house fire in her neighborhood, then held up a "fire mark” she said was symbolic of local residents who paid for fire protection from local companies in other areas, but fire companies from across the district aided in the house fire in her neighborhood.

"Let’s put this in a museum and learn from it. I think we can quickly forget where we came from, and it wasn’t good. Communities come together, we have common ground, and we need to make sure that we’re keeping those thoughts of community together,” she said.

Jason Lanier said he thought the votes against the referendum came from residents struggling with tax increases from the board in previous years, and wary of further increases at or near the state’s Act 1 index, plus additional tax increases to pay for the renovations: "People don’t realize the burden that is going to be on them, in the next four years alone.”

"This is where the vote fell, if you ask me. I like the idea of putting ninth grade (at the high school). That makes sense to me. It makes sense to me to increase the hallways, and fix all of the broken infrastructure. What doesn’t make sense to me is the staircases and the atriums, and all that nonsense that has no benefit. That was an ego move, and that’s what killed this whole idea,” he said. "It was very bipartisan on the no side, not as much on the yes side. More people were scared about their taxes than anything else, and that’s what you guys need to consider.”

And former board member Wanda Lewis-Campbell added her appreciation to board members and administrators for their months of outreach efforts: "You gave the people a chance to have democracy in action, by being able to vote on what they wanted, and they spoke.”

‘Life Works This Way’

Bauer then addressed the comments, saying staff and the architect were already revising updated designs, and said talks will continue at upcoming board facilities and operations committee meetings. Those designs will still address "the clogs” of students in hallways designed decades ago for smaller numbers of students, security concerns, and modernized learning areas, he added, all while staying within budget.

"Life works this way. You don’t always get what you want. You don’t always win, if you will. But we’re going to hold our heads high and listen to the community, because they’re the ones who voted, and we put it in their hands,” Bauer said.

"We will move forward with 10-to-12. It will be great. We will start to plan for the middle schools shortly thereafter; they are not mutually exclusive things. So I’m excited for the future, and I hope all of you are as well.”

Board President Tina Stoll added her own thanks to administrators and the high school project team, and said their reaction to the vote was an inspiring one.

"I came in the next day, and I thought you guys would all be kind of bummed, and sitting around, but you guys were already getting to work on the next plans. That made me feel better. We always said that we would respect the community’s choice. It was the very democratic thing to do, and that’s what we are going to do moving forward,” she said.

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 6 at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock St. in Lansdale, and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on Jan. 29 online. 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.