An official tally has not yet been reached, but it seems that voters in Montgomery County have shot down a multi-million dollar plan that would have seen North Penn High School expanded to include ninth grade students and overhauled the school facilities in Lansdale.
Instead of approving a $403 million construction plan that would have seen the school expanded, new learning spaces added, a new competition gym constructed and other improvements, voters instead decided to support a smaller $236 million plan that, officials said, would mean the school's layout "would not substantially change from when it opened in 1971."
"It needs a complete overhaul to meet the needs of current and future students," district superintendent Todd M. Bauer said in a letter detailing the differences in these proposed plans.
More than 10,000 people voted against a plan that would have required a debt of over $97 million to finance the new construction while more than 7,000 voted in support of it. In nixing the plan, voters denied the school the chance to, as Bauer said, "expand the existing high school to accommodate those students and meet the needs of learners now and in the future."
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It was a proposal that, Bauer noted, the district's board of directors had been working on as part of a long range master capitol plan since 2018.
However, even with a no vote, the school will still see some improvements.
As noted in a letter to the community, there would be work done to update the school's infrastructure, the library and large group instruction area would "receive modest renovations," and educational spaces would be refurbished.
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Though, instead of moving ninth grade students to an expanded North Penn High School, these students will remain at three middle schools throughout the district.
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