Study Projects 39% Enrollment Increase In District By 1995

Moving those classrooms from Montgomery Elementary School will cost $200,000, school district officials said.

Also last week, the Upper Gwynedd Township Zoning Hearing Board approved the school district's request for a zoning variance to permit the addition of a new wing at Pennfield Middle School. The wing will include 16 classrooms, a combination gym and auditorium, and additional office space.

If the school board approves the project, district business manager George P. Starkey said, the addition will cost about $4.8 million. School district administrators have not yet decided whether the addition is necessary, Starkey said.

At the school board meeting Thursday night, board Vice President Thomas J. Whalen said the state Department of Education had approved the school district's $2.3 million plan to convert the now-closed Hancock Elementary School in Lansdale into its administrative headquarters.

The school district's administrative offices at North Penn Junior High School will be converted to classrooms when the project is completed in 1992.

"This has been a good week because we've gotten through a lot of hurdles without any opposition," Starkey said after the board meeting.

"We're a lot closer to a solving the problem of how we're going to accommodate this onslaught of students in the years ahead."