Bids sought for renovation

Construction for new Crooked Billet Elementary set to begin later this year

HORSHAM » The Hatboro-Horsham School District is moving forward with the Crooked Billet Elementary School renovation project according to schedule.

The school board of school approved the advertisement of bids for the project at its June 4 meeting.

Crooked Billet, Hatboro-Horsham’s oldest school building, was built in 1951 and has not been renovated since 1985. Following various studies and reviews, the district decided to demolish the school and rebuild it, similarly to Hallowell Elementary renovations, which the district wrapped up two years ago.

The project is set to begin this year and continue through 2020. During the renovations, all students living in the Crooked Billet area will attend Hallowell Elementary for both the 2018-19 and the 2019-20 school years. In 2020, as the state-of-the-art new school is finished, the students will move back to Crooked Billet.

Now that the bids for the job are out, the district hopes to review the proposed costs from construction companies over the summer and select contractors by the end of August, with construction beginning shortly after.

The renovation will not only improve the building but also the land lot on which the school sits. The land improvements will include lot consolidation, stormwater management and streetscape improvements.

The administration said it hopes to bring similar innovations it implemented in the new Hollowell school to Crooked Billet, including small group instructional areas attached to classrooms, high-priority security, technology and higher lighting and sound quality in the classroom. Other new features will include faculty resources rooms on each floor, a stage built between the cafeteria and the gym for large group flexibility, hallway storage cubbies, grade-level work areas that convert corridors to classrooms and outdoor instructional space with direct classroom access.

The district will also pay focused attention to traffic patterns on site in accordance to traffic study conducted in March of 2017.