{"id":208631,"date":"2026-06-02T18:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/208631\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T18:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:14:09","slug":"bensalem-school-district-eyes-maximum-tax-hike-amid-deficit-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/208631\/","title":{"rendered":"Bensalem school district eyes maximum tax hike amid deficit woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bensalem Township School District<\/a> officials are one step closer to finalizing their budget after months of scrambling to fill a staggering $12-million deficit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

School board members passed a preliminary budget May 28 that includes $3 million in bond restructuring, $6 million in personnel and budget line reductions, and a 4.2% tax increase, the maximum allowed by state law.<\/p>\n

Over the next month, district officials are to continue working to close a remaining $2.5-million budget gap before a final budget is due to the state June 29.<\/p>\n

School administrators have recommended that the remaining $2.5 million be taken from the fund balance.<\/p>\n

Board Vice President Stephanie Gonzalez-Ferrandez said that she wouldn’t feel comfortable with passing a budget that draws more than $500,000 from the fund balance. Limiting that fund balance reduction could require an additional $2 million in cuts.<\/p>\n

But Board President Deborah King said she’s concerned that the district wouldn’t be able to survive any more cuts.<\/p>\n

Board members have already eliminated a total of 31 professional positions<\/a> for the 2026-27 school year, including nine administrative positions, and more than 20 elementary teachers, librarians, guidance counselors and special education teachers.<\/p>\n

In looking for savings elsewhere, board members floated multiple ideas, including potentially closing the Bensalem High School pool or renting it out for swim classes as a possible revenue generator. They are also conducting a district-wide software and technology review to see if there are opportunities to cut costs by canceling underutilized contracts.<\/p>\n

Board members also called on township officials to look into the cost of crossing guards and school resource officers for the district and if any potential savings can be found there.<\/p>\n

School officials are to hold another budget meeting June 17 before they meet to approve the final budget.<\/p>\n

Lacey Latch is the development reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer. She can be reached at LLatch@usatodayco.com.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bensalem’s school budget includes cuts, 4.2% tax hike, but gap remains<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bensalem Township School District officials are one step closer to finalizing their budget after months of scrambling to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[191,193,192,194,78996,91655,91656,86980],"class_list":["post-208631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bensalem","tag-bensalem","tag-bensalem-headlines","tag-bensalem-news","tag-bensalem-township","tag-board-members","tag-deborah-king","tag-fund-balance","tag-school-administrators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208631","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=208631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}