Neshaminy School District votes to close two schools

The Neshaminy school board voted to close two elementary schools Tuesday night as part of a consolidation plan, despite a yearlong campaign by parents at one of the schools to keep it open.

At a special meeting that lasted close to two hours, the board voted, 9-0, to close the Lower Southampton School in Feasterville and, 5-4, to close Oliver Heckman School in Langhorne at the end of the year. Heckman parents had argued that the closing would leave the north end of the district, one of the state's largest with 9,000 students, without a grade school.

The board is moving forward with its plan to close three elementary schools and build a new, 800-student Tawanka Elementary in Lower Southampton. Samuel Everitt was closed last year. Lower Southampton students will attend Tawanka, and Heckman students will attend either Tawanka or Pearl S. Buck Elementary next year, according to school officials.

"The fight is over," Janice Lewis, a mother of two Heckman students who had lobbied to keep the school open, said after the vote. - Kathy Boccella