RTMSD explains need for K-1 Center, next steps in the process
Although they haven’t submitted plans to Middletown Township yet, the Rose Tree Media School District believes the proposed K-1 center will open to students in the fall of 2029.
Superintendent Joseph Meloche, Ed.D., outlined the reasoning for the new school to Fideri News Network.
“We’re still in the process,” said Meloche. “It has not yet gone to the Planning Board. We’re still in the development phase.”
The reason for the new school, he said, is simple: too many students and too little classroom space.
“Enrollment has continued to increase,” said Meloche. “The discussion, honestly, goes back to 2016.”
In the last six years, more than 600 houses have been built in the communities served by the district, according to the district’s website about the project.
District officials have done demographic studies to compare the current enrollment versus the expected enrollment, given new housing developments in the district and others on the township’s drawing board, he said.
“So there’s going to be a need to supplement the space that we currently have at our existing schools,” he said.
In 2023, the district bought a property in Edgmont Township, but the land needed a variance for a school, and Edgmont’s Zoning Hearing Board declined to grant it.
The next year, the board began to discuss changing from a kindergarten to a fifth-grade program to provide full-day kindergarten. The RTMSD plans to build a new school for kindergarten and first grade near Rose Tree Road and Route 352, on land the district owns that is already zoned for educational use, he said.
“So, a school by right could be built on that property,” said Meloche.
Meloche explained that the district is already facing crowded elementary school classrooms. There are six modular classrooms at Glenwood Elementary School and four at Rose Tree Elementary School.
“We are THAT overcrowded at the elementary school level,” said Meloche.
Asked about the benefits to students from attending a school for kindergarteners and first graders that specializes in early childhood education, Meloche said, it will be a special atmosphere.
“To be able to put together in a space that is purely designed for 5- and 6-year-olds is a unique opportunity,” he said. “These children need the opportunity to explore in a space that is safe. They need to be in a classroom where things are at their eye level, at their developmental stage, to allow them to grow. We expect we’ll have a much stronger early childhood program in this new K-to-1 school.”
He noted that most school districts in the Philadelphia suburbs already offer full-day kindergarten.
“The expectations that exist in kindergarten today are dramatically different than the expectations that existed 15 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago,” he said. “We are thankful that we have some incredibly talented kindergarten teachers who do a tremendous amount of work in a 2.5-hour program for our children,” said Meloche. “The needs of the community, the demands of the community, are to put in a full-day kindergarten program,” said Meloche.
A longer day will allow kindergarten students to have more one-on-one time with their teachers, he said.
“It will expand some of that free-play time, some of the experimental time in physical education, in art, and in music,” he said. With such needs, the board and administrators decided to build a new school. By taking out kindergarten and first grade, the existing schools will have more space and “function comfortably,” said the superintendent.
“The opportunity to design a new school for our smallest, newest learners is unique,” said Meloche. “If you visit almost any elementary school, typical elementary schools are designed for the oldest children who attend them.”
But some Middletown residents are concerned that the new school might bring traffic headaches and have spoken up at township meetings.
Middletown officials have required the district to complete an additional traffic study.
“We’ve done traffic studies, and we’re doing the follow-up about what else needs to be done,” said Meloche.
The school district will also encourage parents to bus their children and is planning a realignment of Rose Tree Road to improve traffic flow.
The first children to attend the new school in 2029 would be kindergarteners. They would move up to first grade there the next year, and a new group of kindergarten students would come aboard.
The new school will serve between 700 and 800 students.
The project remains on budget, in the range of $81 to $82 million, officials said.
Also during its Feb. 26 meeting, the school board voted to spend $925,052 for six new school buses. The buses will carry 72 passengers each and were approved in the Oct. 23, 2025, capital budget.
Vanessa Scott, Ed.D., director of management services, said the diesel-fueled buses will replace some older buses.
