Upper Darby sets meeting to air plan for school in Clifton
UPPER DARBY >> A draft plan for a proposed new middle school that could be located on the Clifton Heights Athletic Field will be unveiled at a special meeting next week.
Acting Superintendent of Schools Dan McGarry phoned all residents of the district Wednesday night to deliver a prerecorded message of a special meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center at the high school, Lansdowne Avenue.
The district administration will be reviewing a draft plan for a new middle school in Clifton Heights, he said in the robocall.
“This will be an informational session, and members of the community can send their questions and/ or comments to committeequestions@upperdarbysd.org following the meeting,” McGarry said.
According to McGarry, the administration also will be sharing the draft plan for the new middle school during the Feb. 26 Finance and Operations Committee meeting. The informational session is one key element in the district’s overall plan to improve all facilities.
The on-again, off-again meeting regarding the Clifton Heights Athletic Field on Springfield Road is on again but at a different place, according to the borough’s mayor.
Mayor Joseph Lombardo announced he cancelled the meeting initially scheduled for 6 p.m. Feb. 11 at St. Eugene’s Elementary School, Oak Avenue, after learning it was not going to be an exclusive meeting for borough residents.
The field – considered “sacred ground” by many Cliftonites – is used year round for sports and community activities.
When rumors circulated in September council members vowed to fight to the finish.
“The Upper Darby School Board has not been forthright in what they’re telling us. We feel we are being bullied by the Upper Darby School Board and the Democrats,” said Lombardo, a Republican. “A meeting open to residents of the entire Upper Darby School District would drown us out and we will not be heard. This is about Clifton Heights. I felt it was a political ploy and we would not get our point across. We do not want a middle school built there. Initially the plan was to renovate and enlarge Drexel Hill Middle School. It will be much more costly to build a new school from the ground up than to renovate and enlarge Drexel Hill Middle. We will be there on Feb. 26. There will be a lot of us to voice our opinion as much as we can. We do not want and do not think it’s financially possible for the borough to sustain a school in Clifton Heights.
“Our taxes will go up wherever it is built. But if it’s built here we would have to hire more police and have to raise our borough taxes. Our taxes are high enough.
“Superintendent McGarry reached out to me. He wanted to make a presentation to Clifton Heights before it was made public, but now I find out they opened the meeting up to residents of the entire district. I feel it’s the school board agenda. I don’t need people from the entire school district trying to tell us the benefit of having a middle school in Clifton Heights.”
McGarry says he did offer the meeting to the mayor and borough council last Thursday.
“That got cancelled by the mayor,” McGarry said. “Instead we will meet Feb. 11 at the high school. The mayor of Clifton Heights is great to work with but I’m not going to go back and forth.”
District residents are invited to attend the Feb. 11 meeting but will not be able to ask questions until the Feb. 26 meeting.
The board will also meet for a combined work session and regular meeting 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at the high school.