Jenkintown School District has almost nowhere left to grow, and officials are now eyeing an unusual fix: buying the low-income apartment complex that sits right next to the baseball and softball fields. The district plans to present the idea at a school board meeting Monday at 7 p.m. in the high school auditorium, reviving a concept first floated two years ago but shelved amid uncertainty over funding.
The property in question is Salba Apartments, a 17-unit low-income housing building for adults ages 18 and older at 309 Walnut Street, managed by HumanGood and originally built by Salem Baptist Church in the early 1970s, according to Glenside Local. The one-acre parcel sits directly beside the district’s athletic fields, making it one of the few pieces of adjacent land that could ever expand a campus this landlocked. As reported by The Philadelphia Inquirer, the district has little room to expand beyond its centrally located plot, which already squeezes in administration, sports fields, a playground, and all K-12 classrooms onto one footprint.
A Borough Too Small to Build Out
That squeeze is a matter of geography as much as planning. Jenkintown’s single unified campus, bounded by West and Highland Avenues, sits within a borough that covers just 0.5 to 0.6 square miles, according to an S&P Global Ratings analysis — making it one of the smallest municipal school districts in Pennsylvania. The Inquirer’s report notes the district has added nearly 100 students over the past decade, a roughly 15% enrollment increase even though Jenkintown remains Montgomery County’s smallest district.
Jill Takacs, who was superintendent when the district first considered the property in 2024, said at a December 2024 meeting that the district needs more space because special education needs are growing and smaller classes are preferred, per the Inquirer’s reporting. Marshall Mitchell said at the time that the apartments were becoming too old to use, even though Salba was reportedly at nearly full capacity in 2024. Salem Baptist Church had offered to sell the property to the school district.
What the 2024 Plan Looked Like — And Why It Stalled
The earlier proposal, evaluated with help from Ambler-based Godshall Kane O’Rourke Architects starting in December 2024, included possible relocation of the school’s tennis courts and creation of a preschool center, mental health space, and other facilities, the Inquirer reports. That version would likely have demolished the 17 apartments. Salem Baptist Church had planned to build more affordable housing elsewhere for Salba residents, and the district would have allowed students living in the apartments to remain enrolled even if the replacement complex were located outside the borough…