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 district often states they must build on the 13.9-acre parcel on Rose Tree Road because “they already own the land”. The reality is the district owns over 100 acres across the 4 elementary schools, middle school, & high school.

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.

Ikea Media is moving into the former Sears Building, Granite Run in spring, 2026. Ikea Media is part of a new format Ikea is promoting that allows customers to meet with the IKEA store team to plan and order home furnishing such as kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms. The store won’t be set up for customers to take products home directly. Instead, staff will arrange for delivery or schedule orders to be picked up.