Aging Elkins Park School To Close, School Board Decides

CHELTENHAM TOWNSHIP, PA — Aging Elkins Park School will close permanently at the end of the school year, officials said Tuesday.

The Cheltenham School Board voted unanimously to close the school after a process that included extensive deliberation and strategic planning spanning more than a year and "was not made lightly," Schools Superintendent Brian Scriven said.

The move comes after the school board heard a February 2024 study that included an in-depth facility condition assessment and an enrollment analysis conducted by Montgomery County.

The findings of this feasibility study concluded that Elkins Park School has reached the end of its functional lifespan as an educational facility, the superintendent said.

Following the findings, the district developed a realignment plan to retain rising fifth-grade students
students in their current elementary schools while transitioning rising sixth-grade students to
Cedarbrook to begin in the 2027-28 school year.

To accommodate this transition, planned expansions were proposed for both Cedarbrook and Glenside to ensure adequate space for the additional students.

In April 2024, the district conducted a facilities survey, which received responses from nearly
900 people.

The results indicated that 70 percent of respondents supported the sixth-grade realignment plan, while 85 percent expressed approval of the fifth-grade realignment.

However, in January 2025, following a two-day closure of Elkins Park School due to a significant
boiler leak, it became evident that the facility could no longer be relied upon for continued use, the superintendent said.

School officials then made a recommendation to expedite the realignment plan, with the
grade restructuring now scheduled to commence in the 2025-26 school year.

To facilitate this transition, the district has recommended the following actions for the 2025-26
school year:

● Relocating rising sixth-grade students to the modular units adjacent to Elkins Park School
● Retaining 2024-25 rising fifth-grade students in their current elementary schools, as
originally planned as fifth graders
● Relocating the Empowerment Program in Cheltenham (EPIC), which was previously
housed in the modular units

On Feb. 4, 2025, the district hosted a public information session to provide updates to the
community. On Feb. 26, a public hearing was held in accordance with the Pennsylvania Department of Education's guidelines for school closures.

The Board of School Directors voted on the administration’s recommendation to close Elkins Park School at its meeting on Tuesday night.