HATBORO / HORSHAM TOWNSHIP, PA —While school officials have stated that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied a petition to overturn the approval of the sale of the former Limekiln-Simmons School, residents trying to save the property say the fight is not over.
Peggy and John Ambler —who have been battling the Hatboro-Horsham School District —said there is still another path to maintain possession of the property.
“This is not over and the public should know that the matter remains a legal challenge over honoring the purpose of a gift,” the Amblers told Patch.
At the August school board meeting, Schools Superintendent Scott Eveslage stated that the school district could proceed with the sale under the Public School Code.
The 10.5-acre property at 1125 Limekiln Pike was donated to the school district by Dorothea Simmons in 1933 and had been used as a school and for other district uses. A sale agreement was signed in 2016 for $593,140.
Eveslage has stated that litigation has gone through the Montgomery County Court, Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court denial to hear the case, and a return to county court and a second appeal in Commonwealth Court.
Eveslage said the district intends to honor the agreement of sale and act in the best interest of its taxpayers by selling the property for $593,000.
The Amblers state that the superintendent’s statement at the August meeting “creates a less than full impression.”
“There are two tracks of law, only one is final and complete, and the other is not,” the Amblers told Patch.
The School Code track that is complete was solely about the price value of the sale needing court approval.
“The other track that we are still actively pursuing is about the purpose of the gift needing to be honored,” the Amblers said.
The Amblers said that the first court decision was a win for them, that the school district was required to honor the purpose of the gift. It was the district that appealed opening up more legal complexities and in doing so the District also kept the School Code track of law going, both at taxpayer expense.
“We have fully respected that the district wants to divest itself from owning the property and any ongoing costs and responsibility for it,” the Amblers said. “Because we fully accepted this, a solution was offered of a private non-profit that would take full responsibility for the permanent purpose of the property’s education and open space at no expense to the district.
If the district does not like the private non-profit solution, we maintain that any district conveyance of the property should require that its use be consistent with the donations’ permanent education and open space purpose, the Amblers said.
“Irrespective of legal nuance, everyone who cares about our community and our region of Pennsylvania being perceived as being honorable, ethical, and caring about education and open space should make their opinion known,” the Amblers said. “Let the district know you want the gift honored and do not want taxpayer money spent covering all costs of converting the property’s purpose to housing to help one private developer at no expense to him.”
Prospectville Grammar, now known as Limekiln Simmons School opened on Limekiln Pike, Horsham Township, on land donated by Simmons. The school was added onto in the 1950s and became Simmons Elementary. After Simmons Elementary was moved to Babylon Rd. in 1992, Limekiln-Simmons served a variety of educational functions both for the District and privately such as a Montessori school.
The building was closed in 2011.
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