{"id":223970,"date":"2026-06-20T16:33:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T16:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/223970\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T16:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T16:33:59","slug":"bensalem-cuts-dozens-of-jobs-amid-budget-woes-heres-the-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/223970\/","title":{"rendered":"Bensalem cuts dozens of jobs amid budget woes. Here\u2019s the list"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bensalem Township School Board<\/a> voted to approve a resolution outlining significant job cuts<\/a> throughout the district during an April 22 meeting as officials work to balance the budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A total of 31 professional positions are being eliminated for the 2026-27 school year, including nine administrative positions and over 20 elementary teachers, librarians, guidance counselors and special education teachers.<\/p>\n

Multiple board members spoke about their reluctance to move forward with these cuts ahead of the vote, apologizing for what they described as an unavoidable decision considering the deficit the district is facing.<\/p>\n

“There is not a single one of us that wants to do this,” said board member Karen Winters. “We don’t have a way around this and trust me, we have looked.”<\/p>\n

“None of us want to do this,” she said. “It goes against everything that I believe to be good but we don’t have another choice. We are statutorily obligated to pass a budget and we are so deep in a deficit that there is not another way to do this.”<\/p>\n

Interim Superintendent Victoria Velazquez acknowledged that these are some of the most difficult decisions that any school board has to make and the impacts of these decisions, especially on Bensalem students, are top of mind.<\/p>\n

\"Leasing<\/p>\n

Leasing out the Bensalem Township School District’s administration building is just one of the wide range of options that the school board is considering to fill a nearly $12 million budget deficit.<\/p>\n

“I just want everyone to know that our focus is clear in supporting our students, valuing our staff and ensuring the long-term stability of the district,” Velazquez said. “While navigating these challenges we are doing so with care, transparency and a strong commitment to our community.”<\/p>\n

“Every decision is being made with the students at the center and with a deep awareness of the impact on our staff and our community,” she said.<\/p>\n

During the meeting the board also approved $100 daily stipends for the Acting Director of Human Resources and the Acting Assistant to the Superintendent of Teaching and Learning “for the additional workload and responsibilities” due to their acting positions.<\/p>\n

These interim administrators are now doing the work of two or three people, said board President Deborah King.<\/p>\n

Multiple board members acknowledged the timing of this stipend approval is “terrible” in light of the district’s financial footing but is necessary because of their expanded workload.<\/p>\n

“This is not about ignoring the financial reality we are facing and this is not about being out of touch with what our staff and community are going through,” said board member Leann Hart. “This is about compensating the people who stepped in at a critical moment to help stabilize the district when we needed it most and doing it at a cost that is significantly below what we would otherwise be paying.”<\/p>\n

Both Hart and fellow board member Richard Allen explained that to bring in other employees for these positions, the compensation would total thousands of dollars a day compared to the $100 daily stipend that was approved.<\/p>\n

“We cannot ask people to take on this level of responsibility in this environment and do it without compensation,” Hart said. “Our financial situation was not created by them but our ability to function right now depends in part on them.”<\/p>\n

The school board has been\u00a0scrambling since January<\/a>\u00a0to address significant budget overruns and fill a nearly $12 million shortfall before a balanced budget for the upcoming school year is due to the state on June 30.<\/p>\n

With these personnel cuts and other cost-saving efforts like bond restructuring, the district faces a remaining deficit of roughly $2.7 million, according to an April 21 budget presentation from John Steffy, the district’s head of business operations.<\/p>\n

The savings from planned job cuts from within the Bensalem Township Education Association, the union that represents the district’s teachers, guidance counselors and nurses, are expected to total around $2.5 million, according to Steffy’s budget presentation,<\/p>\n

Additional cuts from the Educational Support Staff Association, the union for district support staff, will generate another $206,403 in savings for the school district.<\/p>\n

Staff reductions from the district’s custodial and maintenance department will generate an additional $423,224 in savings while secretarial cuts will save $378,196.<\/p>\n

Upper Moreland Hosts Lower Moreland In SOL Freedom Baseball<\/p>\n

1 of 19<\/p>\n

Upper Moreland players congratulate each other against Lower Moreland during a Suburban One League Freedom baseball game in Willow Grove on April 20, 2026. UM prevailed 7-0.<\/p>\n

(Daniella Heminghaus | Bucks County Courier Times)<\/p>\n

With a roughly $2.7 million budget gap left to fill, its unclear where the remaining cost savings will come from.<\/p>\n

Any further personnel cuts are unlikely, according to board members during the budget workshop. During Wednesday’s meeting, both Hart and Winters stated that they would not vote to approve any more faculty or staff cuts.<\/p>\n

That means the remaining cuts will have to be structural.<\/p>\n

The board floated multiple ideas including potentially closing the Bensalem High School pool or renting it out for swim classes as a possible revenue generator.<\/p>\n

They are also conducting a district-wide software and technology review to see if there’s any opportunities to cut costs by cancelling underutilize contracts.<\/p>\n

The board has also called on the township 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

“We’ve exhausted every means that we can. We’ll continue to think of different ideas and try our best to resolve this,” King said.<\/p>\n

The school board has just over a month left to find the savings before they have to vote on a preliminary budget on May 27, as required by state law.<\/p>\n

Here’s a full list of the positions being eliminated for the 2026-27 school year:<\/p>\n

2nd Grade Teacher at Benjamin Rush Elementary<\/p>\n

2nd Grade Teacher at Samuel K. Faust Elementary<\/p>\n

3rd Grade Teacher at Benjamin Rush Elementary<\/p>\n

5th Grade Teacher at Benjamin Rush Elementary<\/p>\n

Secondary Librarian at Bensalem High School<\/p>\n

Middle Level Special Education Teacher at Robert K. Shafer Middle School<\/p>\n

Two Secondary Special Education Teachers at Bensalem High School<\/p>\n

Two Secondary English Language Development Teachers at Bensalem High School<\/p>\n

Secondary Science Teacher at Bensalem High School<\/p>\n

Secondary Physical Education Teacher at Bensalem High School<\/p>\n

Secondary Math Teacher at Bensalem High School<\/p>\n

Two Secondary English Language Arts Teachers at Bensalem High School<\/p>\n

Secondary Art Teacher at Bensalem High School<\/p>\n

Secondary World Language Teacher at Bensalem High School<\/p>\n

Elementary English Language Development Teacher at Samuel K. Faust Elementary<\/p>\n

Elementary English Language Development Teacher at Russell C. Struble Elementary<\/p>\n

Floating Elementary Counselor<\/p>\n

Three Elementary Assistant Principals<\/p>\n

One Supervisor of English Language Arts\/Humanities<\/p>\n

One Supervisor of Pupil\/Personnel Services<\/p>\n

One Director of Information Technology<\/p>\n

One Human Resources Manager<\/p>\n

One Maintenance Coordinator<\/p>\n

One Conflict Resolution Coordinator<\/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 school board OKs 31 layoffs including teachers, counselors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bensalem Township School Board voted to approve a resolution outlining significant job cuts throughout the district during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[83122,191,193,79662,192,194,78996,52346,17057],"class_list":["post-223970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bensalem","tag-administrative-positions","tag-bensalem","tag-bensalem-headlines","tag-bensalem-high-school","tag-bensalem-news","tag-bensalem-township","tag-board-members","tag-leann-hart","tag-school-board"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223970","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=223970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}