Did You Know

The district regularly states that the Rose Tree Road site is desirable since “they already own the property.” In 2008, the district sold 4.5 acres of the Rose Tree Road property to Riddle Health Care Foundation for $624,603.00 ($138,000/acre). In 2022, when the Edgmont proposal was collapsing, the district purchased 15 acres from Riddle Health Care Foundation for $5M ($333,333). This purchase included the original 4.5 acres sold.

The school board borrowed $40M in 2018 to build a 400-student elementary school to address overcrowding. The school board selected a roughly 34-acre site in Edgmont Township & lost a 4-year battle over the location zoning. Litigation costs are not disclosed.

Despite Edgmont offering the Sleighton property as an option, no school was built & approximately $14M of the originally borrowed $40M remained.

Sale of the purchased Edgmont property is held up due to a lack of due diligence. The prospective buyer wants the removal of preexisting underground storage tanks & soil/groundwater remediation, if needed, prior to completing the sale.

RTMSD's spending/student is the highest of neighboring districts. Marple Newtown, Garnet Valley, Wallingford -Swarthmore, Ridley, Haverford, & Springfield all manage to spend less.

The Havertown & Springfield school districts, both in dense areas, expanded by building on athletic fields & creating new fields when the old school was razed making optimal use of limited land space.

The expertise of architect (Schraeder)& developers(ICS) is on building large-scale super schools throughout the greater Delaware Valley.