{"id":141890,"date":"2026-03-18T17:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/141890\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T17:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:43:07","slug":"bensalems-superintendent-is-resigning-as-the-district-faces-a-12-million-budget-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/141890\/","title":{"rendered":"Bensalem\u2019s superintendent is resigning as the district faces a $12 million budget deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bensalem Township Superintendent Samuel Lee has resigned from the Bucks County<\/a> school district amid what officials have described as severe budget challenges.<\/p>\n

At a March 11 meeting, the school board unanimously approved Lee\u2019s resignation, which takes effect April 1.<\/p>\n

The board also approved a separation agreement with Lee, who has been superintendent since 2015<\/a> and last March was appointed to another four-year contract.<\/p>\n

Reading a statement at the board meeting last week, board president Deborah King didn\u2019t comment on the reason for Lee\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter discussion with the board, the superintendent has decided to resign,\u201d King said. \u201cWe thank him for his service to the district and wish him well in his future endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.<\/p>\n

King noted that the leadership change comes as the district is \u201calso facing significant financial challenges, including a $12 million budget deficit.\u201d Bensalem officials have cited<\/a> rising special education and charter school tuition payments as major cost pressures.<\/p>\n

If the district raises taxes by 4.2% next year, it will still be more than $7 million short, John Steffy, the district\u2019s director of business operations, said at last week\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

The district could cover that gap by restructuring debt, he said, though doing so will prolong the number of years the district pays it off.<\/p>\n

In a March 11 letter<\/a> to the community, Lee said that \u201cserving as superintendent of Bensalem Township School District has been one of the greatest honors of my professional life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I prepare to step away from this role, I want to express my deep gratitude to our students, families, staff, and community members who make this district such a special place,\u201d Lee said in the letter.<\/p>\n

The board last week appointed Victoria Velasquez, currently assistant to the superintendent for K-12 administration, as interim superintendent while it searches for Lee\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n

The board also last week accepted the resignation of financial manager Brett Haskin. King said that the departure of Haskin \u2014 who is taking a job with the Pennsbury School District \u2014 was not connected to Lee\u2019s resignation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bensalem Township Superintendent Samuel Lee has resigned from the Bucks County school district amid what officials have described…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[191,193,192,194,64967],"class_list":["post-141890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bensalem","tag-bensalem","tag-bensalem-headlines","tag-bensalem-news","tag-bensalem-township","tag-bensalem-township-school-district-superintendent-samuel-lee-resignation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}