The Brief<\/p>\n
Bensalem Township School Board voted to cut 31 staff positions Tuesday, April 21.<\/p>\n
The district faces a $12 million to $16 million budget deficit and must finalize a budget by June 30.<\/p>\n
Cuts include elementary teachers, guidance counselors, special education teachers, librarians, and administrators.<\/p>\n
BENSALEM, Pa. – The Bensalem Township School Board voted Tuesday night to eliminate more than two dozen staff positions as it works to close a $12 million to $16 million budget deficit, according to FOX 29\u2019s Dawn Timmeney.<\/p>\n
School board votes to cut jobs amid major deficit<\/p>\n
What we know<\/p>\n
The board unanimously approved cutting 31 positions, including nine administrative roles and more than 20 elementary school teachers, guidance counselors, special education teachers, and librarians.<\/p>\n
Board members said the decision was difficult but necessary, as the district is required by law to pass a balanced budget.<\/p>\n
The board says state funding formulas for special education and charter school tuition have added millions in extra costs.<\/p>\n
The meeting began with student performances and commendations, but the mood shifted as the board addressed the financial crisis and took the vote.<\/p>\n
Board members apologized to the community before the vote and called on state legislators to help address the funding gap.<\/p>\n
The board is also exploring other cost-saving measures, including installing solar panels, as it works to meet the June 30 budget deadline.<\/p>\n
What we don’t know<\/p>\n
It is not yet clear which specific schools or staff members will be affected by the cuts, or what additional measures may be taken if the budget gap persists.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
Information from The Bensalem Township School Board meeting Wednesday, April 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Bensalem Township School Board voted to cut 31 staff positions Tuesday, April 21. The district faces…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[191,193,192,194,77900,20313,77902,77901,17057,43788,77903],"class_list":{"0":"post-173652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bensalem","8":"tag-bensalem","9":"tag-bensalem-headlines","10":"tag-bensalem-news","11":"tag-bensalem-township","12":"tag-bensalem-township-school-board","13":"tag-budget-deficit","14":"tag-elementary-teachers","15":"tag-guidance-counselors","16":"tag-school-board","17":"tag-special-education-teachers","18":"tag-staff-positions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173652","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=173652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}