BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA — It’s decision time on the township’s middle school plans.

The Bensalem Township School Board is expected to vote Tuesday night on options for its middle school children in the future.

School directors will weigh whether the district should build a new middle school, renovate the current ones, move sixth-graders to the middle school, or consider elementary redistricting and building consolidation.

Presentations were made on those proposals to residents last year.

Several school districts in the Philadelphia region have tackled plans recently for constructing new schools.

The Pennsbury School District is working on plans for a new high school. The Hatboro-Horsham School District just opened a new $125 million middle school, and Abington Township voters passed a special referendum during the primary election for a new middle school.

Patch reached out to School Director Marc Cohen for comment. Cohen declined, wanting to provide his decision during the school board meeting.

School Director Stephanie Gonzalez Ferrandez, who is running for mayor, sent Patch a video in which she discussed the options.

“It’s finally time to stop delays,” she said in the video. “We’re going to vote on a middle school project. Now we all know we’ve got to do something. We need more space. Our elementary schools are all overcrowded. The question is, ‘what’s that going to look like?'”

Ferrandez outlined the options, stating that one option is to build a “mega-middle school” on a field near Robert K. Shafer Middle School and then tear the old one down.

“New is great, but that would put 1,600 11-to-14-year-olds in one building,” she said. “That’s a recipe for disaster. New also means a big price tag.”

Ferrandez also said that a new middle school would cost between $150 million and $160 million.

The school director suggested a “cost-effective solution:” Add on to Shafer and add on to the Cecelia Snyder Middle School at a price tag of $30 million less than a new middle school.

She said that would keep the student population lower and the bill for taxpayers lower as well for the upgrades.

Ferrandez said the school board had decided to move 6th graders to the middle school and that a decision to close an elementary school is pretty much off the table.

Ferrandez stated that the school board has been considering upgrading and expanding the middle schools since before COVID-19.