What makes for an ideal middle school experience? That’s what Bensalem Township School District officials hope to learn from a survey directed toward district stakeholders. The open-ended and anonymous questionnaire will stay open until Nov. 12. The link to the survey can be found at surveymonkey.com/r/Bensalem.
The school district has been thoroughly assessing options for the creation of a middle school experience that will support its educational mission, and believes that candid community input is an important part of the process.
At present, the school board is weighing the alternative of constructing a new state-of-the-art middle school against altering or renovating its two existing middle schools. In total, four options are being carefully reviewed. Feedback from the qualitative survey will provide insight from students, educators, parents and residents.
The district conducted several facilities reviews over recent years. Assessments of Robert K. Shafer and Cecelia Snyder Middle Schools were included in feasibility studies conducted by EI Associates in 2012 and ICS in 2020. Because the EI study is 12 years old, the architectural and engineering design firm SCHRADERGROUP has kept in mind that more systems are reaching the end of their useful life, and the costs associated have risen substantially since that study. Since 2022, BTSD and SCHRADERGROUP devoted countless hours reviewing options for Shafer and Snyder Middle Schools to determine the four most effective and feasible options.
A consistent component of all four options is transitioning sixth-grade students into a middle school setting.
“BTSD strongly believes that grade alignment to include sixth-grade at the middle school level will be very beneficial to our students,” said Superintendent Dr. Sam Lee. “In fact, middle schools clustered by grades have become the most common configuration throughout the country.”
Research demonstrates that sixth-grade students within a middle school setting benefit from curricular standards, academic rigor, staff-to-student support and improved social connections.
“Bensalem Blueprint,” a newsletter that explains the facilities options under consideration and addresses frequently asked questions, can be found at bensalemsd.org/middleschoolproject/. A recording of the Oct. 1 facilities presentation can be found there as well.
Findings from the survey will be presented at the Business Affairs Committee meeting on Nov. 18, at 5:30 p.m., 3000 Donallen Drive, Bensalem.
“We look forward to hearing from our community and reporting back on what has been shared within the survey,” said Lee.
