As a resident of Upper Dublin Township, I sign this petition to express my disapproval of building a bus depot/garage facility on the property behind the Fort Washington Elementary School (FWES) and I implore the Upper Dublin School Board to reject this proposal and to fully pursue other UD sites for building this transportation facility, away from students, teachers, pedestrians and neighborhoods.  

I understand the UDSB is looking for a solution for our bus parking dilemma, something that has been an ongoing issue since the construction of the High School in 2008.  In 2008, $3.6 Million of the $119 Million of referendum approved and borrowed money was promised and planned to be used for a bus depot in 2008.  No bus depot was ever built and since that time, we are paying $450,000/year to rent a lot with poor facilities for our drivers and with an annual renewing lease. While this is a problem that must be fixed, it should not be done at the expense of the health and safety of our children.

On Thursday, June 17, 2021, a feasibility study was presented to the Board during the Finance Committee by DEI Engineering who proposed spending $7,875,000 of taxpayers' money to build a brand new transportation facility a hundred feet away from our neighborhood elementary school with over 550 students and staff.  This potential expense would be borrowed money, as the district does not have a reserve.

**Update 3/3023 - The estimated amount is $10.2 million to build a transportation facility yards away from FWES playgrounds and school.

This feasibility study proposes parking for 50 buses and vans AND 56 cars for the drivers of these buses (that’s over 100 vehicles!).These buses would mainly utilize Highland Ave and the service road behind FWES for entry and exit. Disappointingly, the presented study did not include any air quality testing from the emissions of the diesel fuels from these buses or any traffic studies that would impact the school staff, parents and children.

In September 2018, our Upper Dublin community - over 1,280 individuals- signed a similar petition and rallied at a board meeting, asking to save the Field of Dreams (next to the current proposed site) which was being proposed to be destroyed and turned into the bus depot.  The Field of Dreams was built using funds raised by the community. It's a field that has lighted soccer fields, batting cages, a snack bar, and restrooms and is marked in Upper Dublin’s Open Space and Environmental Resource Protection Plan. The field has acres of open space that if our community had not rallied together to protect, would have been destroyed by actions of many of the same board members. 

Our Upper Dublin Community has the following questions that have been asked to Board and Administration via emails, face to face conversations and during community input in board meetings.  No answers have been provided.  

By signing this petition, I also support asking the school board and the administration the following questions:

1. What other properties within Upper Dublin have been considered to house the transportation facility? Upper Dublin School District and Upper Dublin Township owned property, as well as property not owned, but may already have paved lots and located in the Office Park. What are the exact addresses and dates these properties were considered? Has the district consulted with the township about alternative potential shared spaces? 
2. When will a full feasibility study, like the one done on the property behind FWES, be completed on other potential properties?
3. When will air quality tests be conducted?  How and where will they be conducted?  We would like this to include all playgrounds and ball fields on and surrounding FWES property. We also insist these studies to be completed during the school calendar year that represents accurate pollution and traffic patterns. 
4. When and at what exact locations will multiple traffic studies be completed?  Clearly, traffic studies need to be conducted during the school year, starting in September, during the school hours of 8:15AM-9:15AM, and 3:00PM-4:00PM over the course of various days.  Will the study be comprehensive of pedestrian and vehicular traffic alike?
5. What scientific research are you using to make a clear decision about the safety of over 550+ students and staff, as well as hundreds of households nearby that will be subjected to increased traffic and diesel fumes? Where is the research that would show diesel exhaust, fine particulate matter and carcinogens are safe for humans to breath? 
6. $3.6 Million of the $119 Million of referendum approved and borrowed money was promised and planned to be used for a bus depot in 2008, where is this money or where was it used instead?
7. Why was the bus depot not built on the proposed location in 2008?
8. We have been paying rent for thirteen years for a bus depot. Why has the discussion about what to build, on two very controversial and unsafe locations, just recently begun?
9. When will these questions and community members questions be answered?

It’s bad enough that FWES is next to a major highway (309) and to add another layer of pollution for kids to breathe on a daily basis is unacceptable, especially as they are in their critical developmental years. We are fighting a global pandemic with a virus that targets the respiratory system. We expect the School Board to make decisions to support and improve the safety and well being of our children and not the opposite. Do you want to compromise our children's health and safety? 

We ask you, as elected officials on our School Board, to do your due diligence and to put the safety of your students, staff and community first and foremost.  Please reject the proposal of building a $7.8 million dollar transportation facility at a site behind FWES, bordering many neighborhoods in an already heavily congested area.

*** Update 3/2023 - The UD school board proposed building the bus depot on Edwards Field - across from Maple Glen Elementary School, destroying a soccer field, baseball field and the HS cross country course.  This land is also a historical landmark as slaves passed the Underground Railroad from the Friends Meeting house on the Corner to other locations.  

Since this first petition, an EF-2 Tornado ransacked through Fort Washington and Maple Glen, destroying upwards of 30,000 trees - hundreds on the Fort Washington Elementary Campus.  Noise and air pollution, traffic and congestion.  FWES is under construction from the tornado and has geothermal drilling - building a bus depot for the next 2-3 years would be awful.

*** The School Board does not need to make this decision of building another facility in UD with money we don't have, on land that is not safe for our kids.  Please attend the the School Board Finance Meeting at 6:00 p.m. at the UDHS on Monday 3/20/2023.  Make your voices heard and pass onto neighbors.  THank you.