Founded in 1948, the Pennsbury School District opened its first high school in 1951 on Makefield Road (now Pennwood Middle School). By 1965, a new Pennsbury High School was opened in Fairless Hills on Hood Boulevard to welcome the Class of 1966 and beyond. The site adjoined an existing campus that stretched to Olds Boulevard and already included Medill Bair High School (1960) and the former William Penn Junior High (1955). Medill Bair and William Penn schools were combined as one large building to house 9^th and 10^th graders, while 11^th and 12^th grade students attended Pennsbury Senior High School.

By 2005-06, Pennsbury High School became known as a “unified campus,” with 9^th to 12^th grade students attending classes across two buildings known as PHS East on Hood Boulevard and PHS West on Olds. This is the configuration that still exists today. Science and Social Studies are based in PHS West, while English and Mathematics classes are held in East. Elective subjects and physical education are offered in both schools. Students traverse the campus on a connecting path up to three times daily with a block schedule that accommodates four classes per day.

A 2019 building utilization study and facility assessment led to an increasing desire for one high school building for grades 9-12 to eliminate the travel between schools, improve upon building efficiencies and develop a more secure school campus. In 2023, a District committee evaluated the options of renovating PHS West or building a new high school.

On March 21, 2024, the Pennsbury School Board selected KCBA Architects to design a new high school for grades 9-12, which will be located on the existing Fairless Hills campus. Plans call for the school’s construction to begin in 2025, with doors projected to open for students in 2029.

A recently completed demographic report indicates that the high school enrollment will remain at about 2800 students at that time.

Most importantly, the layout of the current high school campus does not address today’s safety and security concerns. The aging facilities, space inefficiencies, and logistical concerns as students move between buildings, cause significant operational issues. A new build design would be more energy-efficient and have a smaller footprint than the current high school building. 

PHS West is inadequate for further expansion of the existing structure. Significant renovations would be required to address both educational program needs and replacement of existing building systems that are either at or near the end of their useful life. Current classrooms and infrastructure limit the ability to capitalize on 21st-century teaching methods and learning styles. 

Extensive infrastructure problems (e.g. leaking roof, original windows, electrical systems, and boilers from 1969) are quite costly to operate and maintain. The lack of windows in many classrooms causes security and safety issues.

The lack of an appropriate high school life-skills classroom impacts the ability to provide adequate special education services for life-skills students. 

With a seating capacity of only 900, the auditorium cannot accommodate the entire student body at once. The age of the stage and lack of space restrict the ability to rent this space. 

The gym capacity of only about 900 also prevents the entire student body from participating in assemblies and pep rallies at the same time.

Superior school buildings facilitate superior educational offerings. Families desire a high-quality education for their children and want homes in good school districts. Houses in desirable districts, therefore, enjoy increased property values, benefiting all property owners.

Neighboring school communities have been regularly renovating or building new school facilities, increasing their attractiveness to potential home buyers.

An up-to-date facility can generate new revenue streams for the school district with the ability to rent the auditorium, gym, and other school spaces attractive to outside users.

Being proactive and remedying known security vulnerabilities help reduce the risk and potential severity of school violence.

A new build would be completed faster as there would be less disruption to the high school community and operations. Students in grades 9-12 will continue to attend classes in the existing buildings until the new high school is opened.

Other considerations taken into account included the cost to operate for over 50 years, the cost to maintain for over 50 years, the value of occupancy, the value of owning a home in the feeder townships/boroughs, and the cost of not building.

Note: New building costs also include remediation and demolition of the old school buildings, renovating and replacing athletic fields, and redoing or rerouting traffic patterns, if necessary.

The footprint for the new school would be on the current school grounds, but not on the site of the existing high school structures. 

Once a new high school is completed, the old schools will be demolished, and those spaces will become parking and athletic fields.

No, not at this time.

The current estimate for the new high school is between $250-270 million. The final estimate will depend on the scope of the project.

The team has closely watched material costs and monitored material options during each phase of the design process. The project manager and designers will review and reconcile cost estimates during all design phases. 

These strategic updates and monitoring allow the District to go into the bidding process prepared for a more informed final cost. It is incumbent upon the District to stay within the statutes of Act 1 and Act 34, as well as the borrowing capacity limits determined by the state of Pennsylvania.

The intention is to deliver this construction project in a budget range of $250-270 million. Similar to a mortgage, the principal and interest payments could reach $569.4 million.

To finance the project, the District has already implemented a tax increase for capital projects and also plans to issue bonds.

The District must operate in strict adherence to three (3) statutory guidelines that serve to establish this budget ceiling:  

• Act 1 – passed by Harrisburg in 2006, the “Act 1 Index” is the state's measure for limiting property tax increases to a rate justified by wage and other inflationary indicators. Act 1 requires school districts to seek voter approval for tax increases greater than the annually-published Act 1 Index. Essentially, it limits districts from taxing beyond inflationary rates.  

• Act 34 – passed in 1973 and affectionately referred to as the “Taj Mahal Act,” Act 34 is a law that applies to the construction of new school buildings, new district administration office buildings, and additions to existing buildings. An Act 34 construction project requires a referendum if the Maximum Building Construction Cost exceeds the Aggregate Building Expenditure Standard, as calculated within the Act and adjusted each fiscal year using the Building Cost Index History inflationary benchmark data that is published by Engineering News Record.  

• Local Government Unit Debt Act (LGUDA) – recodified in 1996 and administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, the Act provides the procedure for PA’s local governmental entities to issue debt and establishes borrowing limits for each entity, including schools. The calculated “Borrowing Base Capacity” indicates the extent to which a school district, according to the law, can incur additional debt.

Even if this Board had an interest in going above this budget ceiling, these three guard rails serve as meaningful guidelines for fiscal responsibility designed to benefit Pennsbury taxpayers. Essentially, the Board cannot overtax, overbuild, or overborrow.  

The District will continue to adhere to a rigorous, strategic, and transparent five-year planning process to ensure this community has full visibility to anticipated annual tax increases. 

 

Recognizing the current state of the economy, the Board is encouraged by recent trending and feels confident in its ability to live beneath the Act 1 imposed index in each of the next five years, while also staying within the other spending and borrowing limits outlined above. 

*projected

Importantly, the annual tax increases contemplated here cover both the new high school project AND the operational budget of the District in full. For context, annual tax increases for operational needs have historically averaged around 2% in Pennsbury. The incremental 1 - 1.5 percentage point increase annually, in turn, will subsidize the construction of a new high school. 

 

The combined impact of these fiscally-responsible investments will ensure a thriving and future-facing Pennsbury High School physical plant, while keeping the tax rate in the bottom third of the 41 comparative school districts in Bucks County. 

 

Click here to view more information about the funding of the new building: Intro to Borrowing.

In Pennsylvania, school boards are limited as to how much they can raise property taxes. Act 1 prevents the District from raising taxes above the Act 1 index, which is established by the PA Department of Education. The state's measure for determining property tax increases is justified by measures of statewide wage inflation (the annual increase in the statewide average weekly wage for the prior year, the increase in the Employment Cost Index for Elementary and Secondary Schools for the prior year and a school district’s local wealth). 

If a district wants to go above the Act 1 index for something other than an exception, a referendum is required. A referendum ballot question must ask if the voters approve raising taxes by a specified percentage above the district’s index, plus the amount of the exception (if any).

 

The Pennsbury School Board does not intend to go above the state-imposed financing and tax-paying limits. There are no Act 1 exceptions to fund the high school project, nor is the Board attempting to take any. 

Every school construction project in Pennsylvania is required to comply with the Act 34 guidelines.  Act 34 details are available by clicking here.

Project costs will be monitored continuously throughout the design process, and numbers will be updated in this formula as needed.

The Board and District administration have developed a 20-year capital plan that will address every building in the District. This will require additional funding and the District has planned for this over the next 20 years.

Pennsbury is eager to serve future students with the best possible educational opportunities. Design development is expected to be completed in June 2025. Construction documents will be completed throughout the summer of 2025.

Bidding for the project will open in the summer and fall of 2025. This means breaking ground as soon as 2025, with the school opening in the winter of 2029.

Bidding will begin in the summer of 2025 for site development, which will include excavation, backfill, grading, roads, utilities, stormwater facilities, etc. 

 

In 2025, bidding for the building will open, encompassing structure and site finishes. These include landscaping, lighting, signage, fencing, retaining walls, etc. 

 

Geotechnical engineers have already studied more than 100 core drilled samples to identify areas of weakness in the soil, ensuring that during site development, those areas are addressed and strengthened to bear the load of the new high school and any future additions. 

The current schematic design considers where areas of bedrock are located and how the land will need to be excavated and reinforced to support the building, roadways, and other weight. All work will also be approved by the Falls Township Code Enforcement and Zoning Department , ensuring checks and balances throughout the process.

 

The Erosion and Sediment Pollution Control Program provides guidance and procedures established by the Department of Environmental Protection in order to minimize runoff and erosion, which could result in sediment pollution to surrounding waterways. This plan's features can include vegetative stabilization, sediment barriers, filter socks and berms, rock filter, silt fence, sediment basins, inlet protection, vehicle rumble pads, vehicle wheel wash stations, etc.

The new high school will be constructed while the existing buildings remain in use. The East Campus, West Campus, Village Park, and possibly the pool house will be demolished once the construction of the new school is completed.