Students in the Upper Perkiomen School District will be returning to school late next month. During a 5-hour, 37-minute meeting, the school board voted 6-3 Thursday night to approve a shift from a 100 percent online learning to a hybrid learning model.

            President Kerry Drake, Vice President Mike Elliot, Judy Maginnis, Dana Hispser, Keith McCarrick and Peg Pennepacker voted for the action item, which provides an option to attend two-days each of in-person and online learning beginning Nov. 30. The vote came near the end of a workshop meeting hosted on Zoom.

            Students throughout the district will retain the opportunity to continue participating in a 100 percent online learning model. Kindergarten students will continue to attend school 100 percent in person, according to Assistant Superintendent Andrea Farina.

            Raeann Hofkin, Stephen Cunningham and Melanie Cunningham voted against the item, which was recommended by district administrators.

            The trio, along with McCarrick, came within one vote of ...

            New Hanover's planning commission voted not to support a proposal by a Bucks County concrete business to open a quarry. Last week, the five-person body unanimously approved a motion recommending that the township's board of supervisors reject final plan approval of the Silvi Group's most recent application, which had been preliminarily approved.

            Following a 10-minute executive session, the members voted near the end of a 4-hour, 20-minute meeting on Oct. 14 at the township's recreation center on Hoffmansville Road. Sue Smith, the committee chair who adjourned the meeting at 9:50 p.m., expressed discomfort with asking the supervisors to approve the applicant's proposal to mine two parcels south of Hoffmansville Road.

"It's not up to snuff," Smith said prior to the vote.

            Vice Chairman Linda Swagzdis said she did not believe the issues related to the required permits were properly addressed.

            "There are too many incomplete facets," said Swagzdis, whose term ends at the end of 2020. "This is not a clean plan."

            The current revision – the applicant's third since receiving preliminary plan approval in 2015 – does not meet the requirements detailed in the preliminary plan resolution, according to township Manager Jamie Gwynn.

            The plan before the planning commission was the third revision following the preliminary plan resolution secured by the applicant in 2015, according to the manager. He wrote in an email that the board of supervisors will consider the plan during an Oct. 26 public meeting.

            In September, the attorney representing the Silvi Group – Stephen Harris – submitted a revised version of a 2015 plan that had already received preliminary plan approval. Supervisors Doug Muller, Phil Agliano and Andrew Kelly voted in June of that year to ...