William Penn School District Superintendent Dr. Eric Becoats announced his planned departure from the district later this year in an email to the community.<\/p>\n
Becoats, who helped usher William Penn through the COVID-19 pandemic after taking the helm as superintendent in May 2020<\/a>, said in the email that he would be retiring effective Aug. 3, about five months from now.<\/p>\n \u201cI must devote my full attention to my family, whose needs at this time require my focus and presence,\u201d he said in the email. \u201cWhile this decision is accompanied by mixed emotions, I have long believed that family must remain a priority, and I am guided by that principle as I enter the next chapter of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n Becoats listed some of his accomplishments during his tenure with William Penn.<\/p>\n Among them were new investments in the district\u2019s infrastructure and materials, including $40 million in facility upgrades, the development of a $14.6 million athletic complex<\/a> at Kerr Field, securing $5 million in annual budget increases, serving as a witness in the landmark school funding lawsuit that changed how tax dollars are allocated to districts<\/a>, and implementing various policy changes that led to demonstrative student success.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThese efforts have resulted in district stability and bolstered forward momentum,\u201d Becoats said. \u201cWhile progress has been made, continued work is necessary to fully support students, staff, and families of our six boroughs: Aldan, Colwyn, Darby, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne and Yeadon. I will continue to support the William Penn School District during my transition period to ensure consistency and district success.\u201d<\/p>\n More recently, Becoats has come under fire for negotiating a new three-year contract at $230,000 annually even as district finances were faltering due to serious issues in the budget office<\/a> that some residents placed squarely at Becoats\u2019 feet.<\/p>\n Some also criticized what they saw as wasteful spending on ancillary items while the state Legislature\u2019s failure to pass a timely statewide budget saw districts including William Penn taking out loans just to keep the lights on.<\/a><\/p>\n Students staged a walk-out last year<\/a> over these and other issues<\/a>, and some parents viewed Becoats as either hostile to or dismissive of their concerns.<\/a><\/p>\n Becoats said he has never taken his responsibilities lightly, and that he was confident that the district is \u201cwell-positioned to continue the advocacy efforts and progress initiated during my tenure.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the district did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Penn School District Superintendent Dr. Eric Becoats announced his planned departure from the district later this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[212,27402,182,139,28,69,71,70,210],"class_list":["post-147954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-delaware-county","tag-lansdowne","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-top-stories-dtd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147954","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=147954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}