Highspire annexation In 2014, a group of Highspire taxpayers successfully circulated a petition to secede from the Steelton-Highspire School District. They point to chronic low student achievement coupled with district mismanagement and fiscal shortfalls. They sought to join neighboring Middletown Area School District. The Board of the MIddletown Area School District opposed the petition in Dauphin County court pointing to their own low student academic achievement. The Steelton-Highspire School Board opposes the petition as does the district's administration. A Dauphin County County judge approved the petition to shift. The process moved to the Pennsylvania Department of Education in January 2015. In recent years several other communities have successfully shifted from one public school districts to another.