Facing decreasing enrollment, Central Bucks School District will consider closing of one or more schools as well as other changes, officials said.
Following a lengthy study examining the district’s population trends and use of its schools, a preliminary recommendation suggests closing Linden Elementary School in Doylestown Borough and realigning ninth graders into high schools, according to Abram Lucabaugh, CBSD’s superintendent.
“The three Central Bucks high schools currently house students in grades 10 through 12. While the ninth grade year is recorded on students’ official high school transcripts, it is currently housed at the middle school level for one reason: space,” said the superintendent in a letter to the community. “With enrollment decreasing, we can now bring ninth graders to the high school. Doing so carries many benefits for students.”
Among those, he noted, are increased access to courses, consistent, efficient academic planning and access to athletics and extracurricular activities.
Built in 1959 and expanded in 1968, 1990 and 1998, Linden Elementary School currently enrolls about 400 children.
Additionally, the school board is expected to consider shifting middle schools to grades 6-8 and elementary schools to kindergarten through fifth grade.
The closing of schools was also recommended by the study, conducted by Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates.
“When schools operate below 80 percent capacity, they are considered to be educationally and financially inefficient: therefore, redistributing students to achieve balance is recommended and even essential,” said Lucabaugh in his letter. “Given this, the Board of Directors will consider the potential closing of one or more schools coupled with a reconfiguration of attendance boundaries.”
Any changes, the superintendent said, would be likely to take effect during the 2024-25 school year. He said the district will provide a “well-developed transition plan” and communicate with families “every step of the way.”
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