Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
The Bensalem Township School District has selected longtime district administrator Victoria Velasquez as its next superintendent, after its previous superintendent resigned this spring amid a budget shortfall.<\/p>\n
Velasquez, who has worked for the district for 12 years, is expected to be appointed superintendent at a school board meeting Sept. 23, the Bucks County<\/a> Intermediate Unit said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cI am deeply honored and grateful for the opportunity to continue serving the Bensalem Township School District as district superintendent,\u201d Velasquez said in a statement.<\/p>\n Noting that her daughter graduated from Bensalem, Velasquez said, \u201cIt is my home, and it is a community I care deeply about and am incredibly proud to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n Velasquez was selected to lead the 6,400-student district after a search led by the Bucks County Intermediate Unit that drew 27 applicants from five states, according to the intermediate unit.<\/p>\n Deborah King, the Bensalem school board president, said in a statement that she had watched Velasquez \u201clead with humility, diligence, integrity, and a genuine love for Bensalem.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe knows this community, she believes in this community, and she understands that our students must remain at the heart of every decision we make,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n Velasquez has worked in Bensalem as assistant to the superintendent for K-12 administration, director of elementary curriculum and instruction\/federal programs, and supervisor of data and assessment\/federal programs.<\/p>\n She has served as interim superintendent since April, after the district\u2019s former superintendent, Samuel Lee, resigned amid a $12 million budget shortfall<\/a>. The district eliminated more than 30 positions<\/a> to help fill the gap .<\/p>\n As interim superintendent, Velasquez worked with the board on organizational systems and fiscal stewardship \u201cduring a consequential period for the district,\u201d the intermediate unit said in the statement.<\/p>\n Before coming to Bensalem, Velasquez worked as a principal in the School District of Philadelphia<\/a> and the Norristown<\/a> Area School District. She received bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from Temple University<\/a>, a principal certification from Drexel University<\/a>, and a doctorate in educational leadership, management, and policy and superintendent certification from Seton Hall University.<\/p>\n If approved on Sept. 23, Velasquez will be sworn in as superintendent on Oct. 1 at Bensalem High School, the intermediate unit said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min The Bensalem Township School District has selected longtime district administrator Victoria Velasquez as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[191,193,192,194,120059],"class_list":["post-288979","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-new-superintendent-victoria-velasquez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288979","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=288979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}