Rose Tree Media School District aims to ease overcrowding with K-1 center
The Rose Tree Media School District could soon be able to offer full-day kindergarten for the first time — if the district’s plans to build a new school in Middletown Township come to fruition.
According to a website dedicated to the project, called “Time to Bloom,” the school district is “moving forward” with plans to build a new early learning center focused on kindergarten through first-grade students.The goal is to open the new center in the fall of 2028.
Noting that the communities it serves have grown by more than 600 new homes in the last six years, the district says its four elementary schools are “operating at or beyond full capacity.” That overcrowding required the district to use 10 modular classrooms at the start of the school year in September.
The school district also stated that enlarging its current elementary buildings is not possible, and converting other buildings is costly and wouldn’t meet the needs of young children.
Therefore, the district aims to build a new school south of Penncrest High School near the intersection of Middletown and Rose Tree roads, which will feature full-day kindergarten, smaller class sizes, and “age-appropriate learning and activity spaces.” Rose Tree Media School District also noted that it already owns land that’s zoned for educational use near where it plans to build the new school.
However, the school still must go through a months-long planning and development process, and some Middletown residents at public hearings this fall expressed concerns about the project’s impact on green space and traffic patterns, per news reports.
Middletown Township officials recently asked the Rose Tree Media School District to conduct an expanding traffic study that gauges how the new school will impact the area where it’s slated to be built. And the district must also submit a preliminary land development plan to the township that will trigger a series of public hearings — the first of which would be held in January.
