New buildings allow Bucks school to expand

BENSALEM School Lane Charter School in Bensalem recently spent about $8.5 million to buy two buildings to convert them into schools for students in grades 7 through 12, officials announced Tuesday.

The purchase, which closed about two weeks ago, will allow the charter school to expand the number of students in grades 7 through 10 and to add 11th- and 12th-grade classes, which it does not currently have, said Frank Roddy, president of Roddy Inc., the real estate company that worked on the deal for the school.

The 11th- and 12th-grade classes will be at a 17,500- square-foot facility at 3340 Tillman Dr., Roddy said. That building is expected to be ready for students by August 2017.

Students in grades 7 through 10 will take classes at a 45,000-square-foot facility at 3050 Tillman Dr. that is expected to be ready by August 2016, Roddy said.

Roddy was not sure how many additional students those grades would be able to accommodate once the new building was complete.

School Lane Charter opened in 1998 and has nearly 1,000 students from nine districts. Its current school buildings are on Bristol Pike.

- Chris Palmer