School Consolidation and the Beginnings of the Neshaminy School District
Open Access
- Author:
- Termyna III, Edward Eugene
- Area of Honors:
- Secondary Education
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- David Alexander Gamson, Thesis Supervisor
David Alexander Gamson, Thesis Supervisor
Scott Alan Metzger, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- School Consolidation
Neshaminy - Abstract:
- The Neshaminy School District is a school district to the northeast of the city of Philadelphia. The School District was formed in 1950 from the consolidation of six other local districts. Those six districts included Middletown Township, Langhorne Borough, Langhorne Manor Borough, Hulmeville Borough, Penndel Borough, and Lower Southampton Township. The process of consolidation was slow as these districts joined together one by one, with the hope of better schools for their students. The process began in 1922 when Middletown Township and Langhorne Borough constructed a joint board agreement, and ended in 1950 when the last of the school districts, Lower Southampton Township, joined the joint board agreement. The process of consolidation in the Neshaminy area was a aided by a few trends. Probably the most important was the public’s interest in better high school facilities. Langhorne-Middletown High School, the only high school in the area, was largely inadequate from the 1930’s up until the 1950’s. The public wanted better facilities for their students, and in order to the districts to afford this, consolidation was necessary. None of the districts could afford to finance building projects on their own. Another major influence was state and national trends for school district consolidation. As more and more student’s enrolled and finished high school after WWI, the curriculum and the needs in schools changed. Schools needed to consolidate in order to provide the high school facilities in this new era of schooling. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Instruction was a major influence in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. They set regulations for school and pushed for school consolidation throughout the State. Their influence was seen throughout the history of consolidation in the Neshaminy area.