LANSDALE — North Penn School District officials are starting to lay out the case for a major renovation of North Penn High School, and projects that could shape the district for decades.
And they’ve done so by detailing the faults and failures of the current high school, and the possibilities a major renovation could bring.
“The objective for tonight is really to start the conversation about what needs to be done, and the current status of North Penn High School,” said Superintendent Todd Bauer.
District staff and the school board have discussed the need for a major overhaul of the high school for much of the past decade, with a series of public meetings held in 2018 to field feedback and discuss facilities needs across the district. At that time, the district conducted a community survey, held multiple “Facilities Forum” meetings to list needs, and discussed the possibility of adding a new wing to the high school to house ninth grade students shifted from the three district middle schools — before talks were largely halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“As everyone knows, the world came to a screeching halt due to the pandemic. And things have changed: financially, from a construction aspect, and the way in which we conduct business, in the North Penn School District and beyond,” Bauer said.
In a presentation to the school board on Feb. 7, Bauer, administrator of secondary education and renovations Pete Nicholson, who succeeded Bauer as high school principal from 2018-22, and architect David Schrader outlined the steps taken since school has returned to normal, including enrollment projection and traffic studies presented so far this year, and visits to similar high schools a revamped North Penn could emulate — while answering some frequently asked questions.
“They ask, ‘What’s the design? What’s it going to look like?’ Someone reached out last week and said ‘We heard there’s no high school parking for teachers,'” said Bauer.
“There’s no design yet. There is no project yet. We are trying to get to the point where there is a design, and there is a project. We’re not there. But I don’t believe we need to look all that far for a vision,” Bauer said.
As he spoke, Bauer showed a series of slides with images from Knapp Elementary School, the district’s most recent major renovation project, which was largely competed last fall and overhauled that school to add new classroom space, reconfigure the driveway entrances, and replace aging utilities, in a multiyear project designed by the same architect and overseen by the same administrators.
“You think about how far Knapp came, and that 600-student elementary school. What could happen on a 550,000-square-foot campus with our high school?” Bauer said.
Exploring ideas
Several other photos showed possibilities, all taken from area high schools that district administrators have visited in recent years, all featuring flexible, open learning spaces that Schrader, the architect, said are meant to provide options for students to learn anytime, anywhere.
“We don’t talk about a cafeteria anymore, that gets used twice a day or three times a day, or in some cases five times a day. We instead talk about the commons, like a college facility, and the commons in a college facility is used for everything, all day, all night,” he said.
“It’s directly adjacent to the auditorium, directly adjacent to the gymnasiums, directly adjacent to the natatorium, and directly adjacent to the counseling complex, the medical center, and all of the other learning spaces. It’s a multi-use space,” Schrader said.
Specialized areas could be created for arts instruction, while a new gym could feature a second floor with an indoor walking and running track, and workout and fitness facilities could be open to the community as well as students, Bauer added. One visit imparted a key lesson: as administrators entered a two-story open entrance at a high school in Virginia, they found students seated on couches, working on laptops at their own pace.
“We walked by, and said ‘what are you doing?.’ One kid said, ‘I’m in my math class’ — it’s at any time, at any place, and then his next class was in his classroom,” he said.
Developing needs and space
Since late 2021, as administrators have visited the various area schools to find ideas to emulate, the district and Schrader have worked on planning and developing needs lists and space estimates in a master plan process that Bauer said is now nearly complete, with a presentation on the high potential financing options for a future high school slated for March.
“We are hopeful to have a contract for designing the renovation at North Penn High School in April. That is our plan,” he said.
The superintendent then went into specifics of the high school itself, noting the building was initially constructed in 1971, additions included a senior cafeteria in 1998, the school’s K-pod in 1999, and a natatorium in 2005, and “many of the systems and structures are at end-of-life.”
Current enrollment is just shy of 3,200 students in grades 10-12, plus between 120 and 150 ninth-grade students currently taking courses there, and “that is just for curriculum. It is not for athletics and activities,” he said.
Long-term plan
Each month the district’s facilities and operations committee discusses their long-term capital plan of various facilities, systems and equipment in need of upgrades or repairs. On that list, Bauer said, over $114 million is currently projected for components of the high school, of which over $77 million is slated for projects scored 3.0 or higher on the district’s 1-to-5 grading scale, with higher numbers indicating worse conditions and higher need of repairs.
Major items on that list include a $31 million projection for high school HVAC systems and piping, an additional $5 million for HVAC controls, $2.5 million for boilers, and $12 million for electric switchgear and panels. Those figures were listed alongside photos of burst pipes, flooded floors and ceilings, and fraying insulation, outlined further in a video by the district’s NPTV channel showing the history of the high school and the recent repairs needed.
Nicholson then explained the arguments in favor of shifting ninth grade away from the district’s three middle schools, starting with a photo of the NPHS main entrance.
“Before you is a list of all of the high schools in Montgomery County that do not have ninth grade at the high school. I’ll take a moment…it’s just us,” he said.
Moving ninth grade to the high school could allow greater participation for students in that grade in the high school’s engineering academy, internships, sports and extracurriculars, along with school events like dances, Nicholson told the board. Survey data gathered last fall indicated that over 60 percent of ninth grade students would have taken advanced courses and used physical resources at the high school if able to do so, while nearly 80 percent would have participated in a high school club or arts or athletic program — and a technical school they could attend is just next door.
“Our ninth graders are eligible to take courses at North Montco, but there are a lot of transportation needs, and a lot of missed educational time in the building, because of that — even though North Montco is quite literally walking distance from our high school campus,” Nicholson said.
And then … the traffic
The traffic study presented in January has shown a need to widen several roads and driveways around the school, with more traffic signals possible on Valley Forge and Snyder Road — and a traffic roundabout at Snyder and Troxel Road meant to slow traffic could be required, Nicholson said.
“I don’t believe there’s much interest in considering that roundabout. Unless Towamencin Township said ‘You must do this,’ and I see the faces of some of the members, and I agree, I do believe a four-way stop (sign) would be fine. But the township could say otherwise,” he said.
One other consideration: modular classrooms are currently used at three elementary and two middle schools, with a total of three modular classrooms at North Wales Elementary, six at Gwyn-Nor, seven at General Nash, 14 at Pennfield, and 22 at Pennbrook, all installed in the 1980s or ’90s and some with no renovations since. Bauer pointed out one sign of how long those modular have been used, poking fun at district solicitor Kyle Somers.
“Those ‘temporary’ modulars at Gwyn-Nor Elementary School, were there when little Kyle Somers was a student at Gwyn-Nor Elementary School,” Bauer said, and Somers added, “A few years ago,” drawing laughs from the rest of the board.
Enrolment study data presented in January is still being analyzed, Nicholson added, and any future plans for the high school would also need to consider whether the district’s transportation department and maintenance garage could be moved elsewhere.
“We would like to regain some of that space for fields, for student participation, for parking, for additional space,” Nicholson said.
‘The building is tired’
Bauer closed with a look at recent problems within the high school, noting a total of 17 equipment failures with costs over $5,000, totaling over $1.3 million in repairs needed since 2019 to chillers, cables, a pool heater, roofing, and more.
“The building is tired. When you walk in the hallways, it looks good, because our facilities and operations team does a heck of a job. But it’s tired. Its systems are tired, and it is most certainly time,” Bauer said.
Board member Cathy Wesley asked if the administrators could include data on shifting sixth grade from the district’s elementary schools to the three middle schools, and Bauer said they would do so. Board member Al Roesch asked if the transportation facilities including the district’s bus dispatch center also dated back to the early 1970s, and Director of Facilities and Operations Tom Schneider said it did, and space constraints are starting to show.
“The (vehicle) bays right now don’t really fit our new buses. They’re having difficulties with the bays, because the buses are a little bit longer than they used to be. There are some difficulties with the building. It’s aging, it’s definitely aging,” he said.
Board member Juliane Ramic said she’s seen firsthand as a parent of students at Knapp that the recent elementary school renovation has helped free up staff by separating the bus and parent driveways. Prior to the renovation, “you had more staff, who had to help make sure the kids were staying in line, and in the right area, not falling off the curb in front of a bus. It makes a big difference, not only for our vehicles, our facilities, but also for our students,” she said.
Board member Tim MacBain then asked about the educational impact of the equipment failures, and Bauer answered that high school staff are largely flexible in working around failures, “but it’s absolutely a drain on our systems, our personnel, our facilities.” Students with mobility problems can have to navigate across several floors or hallways to use the high school’s one elevator, he added, and board VP Christian Fusco pointed out that the current building was designed before new accessibility standards and laws have been passed.
“We talk about updating facilities that are 50 years old, facilities that were designed for 20th-century education, that are being utilized 20 years into the 21st century,” Fusco said.
“I think we all agree that we need to do what’s best for the students and the kids in this community. And that our 20th century facility is falling short of that vision. It’s not a want, this is a need,” he said.
Board member Wanda Lewis-Campbell said she took part in a tour of Upper Merion High School with administrators that she termed “fabulous,” and said she thought “having those tours for the community is going to be eye-opening” in revealing the current condition of the high school. Roesch asked if staff had any way to show the public what the future high school could look like while touring the current one, and Bauer said he and staff would look into options using augmented reality projections to show the possibilities.
Ramic then asked for a projected timeline, and Bauer said he thought design, plans and permits would likely take the next one to two years, with groundbreaking possible by 2025.
“The students who will actually go to a completed North Penn High School, we’re probably talking the latter part of elementary school right now, because this is a five to seven-year project,” he said.
Several public comments were made on the project, one by resident Bill Patchell, who asked the board to consider whether shifts to online learning due to COVID-19 could mean smaller or less costly facilities are needed.
“Get them online. They supply the room, the heat, the light, and when they get done, or move, you’re not paying for it,” he said.
Resident Jason Lanier added that he thought new facilities and renovations were less important than classroom learning, and questioned whether the board’s policies distract from that goal.
“No matter how swell the open spaces are, and how much it looks to be competitive to a college — which by the way, colleges all over are losing enrollment — it’s not a benefit to have a real swanky-looking college for high school. It’s learning fundamentals, is what’s important,” Lanier said.
And Harsh Desai, a high school student who writes for their Knight Crier news team, said he has a friend who uses a wheelchair, and “has to go around the entire school” to get to a working elevator while another is being repaired. Fusco answered that he has a relative who’s currently a student and has also encountered problems firsthand with the elevator repair.
“Trying to imagine him, on crutches, traversing our building, with one elevator, to try to get from which pod he’s starting in — it’s just anecdotal, but it’s one of a tapestry of examples of how this building is failing to meet the needs of our students,” he said.
North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 16 at the Upper Gwynedd Township Building, 1 Parkside Place, and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 27 online; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.
