Abington School District took a “key step forward” today regarding the future of Abington Middle School.
According to superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Fecher’s announcement, the Board of School Directors “expressed a desire to pursue a plan to build one new middle school on the current campus” during their meeting on Tuesday, January 14.
The option to build a new school was chosen from four possible options: Renovating the current building ($206M – $268M), building a new middle school ($252M – $307M), building two new middle schools serving grades 6-8 ($320M – $497M), or creating two new middle schools, including one building for grades 5-6 and one for grades 7-8 ($365M to $505M).
The district will begin preparing a resolution to fund the project through a referendum to be voted on by Abington Township and Borough of Rockledge residents. The board will review and vote on the resolution at the January 28 meeting, Dr. Fecher said.
Yesterday’s meeting featured an overview of three recent surveys that provided further insights for the board’s evaluation process:
- November: An online ThoughtExchange open to all residents, with 1,180 responses.
- December: Two additional surveys: a telephone survey of 500 residents representative of the district’s entire adult population, and another online survey with 1,361 responses.
The presentation to the Board and summary of the survey results are available here. Residents can continue sharing input through this Connect Form.
“I want to thank you for your continued engagement and feedback throughout our multi-year planning process,” Dr. Fecher said. “The valuable feedback we received on the proposed options for Abington Middle School helped guide decision-making on the best plan to meet the needs of our students and staff, reflect our community’s priorities, and provide long-term value.”
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