The new Pennridge School District logo. (Courtesy of the Pennridge School District)
The president of the Pennridge School Board Monday, November 17 warned of a “difficult financial future” for the school district, necessitating some cost-cutting measures such as the potential closures of “underutilized schools.”
The warning follows the district’s first property tax increase in nine years, with members noting rising expenses amid flat revenue growth.
At Monday’s school board meeting, board president Ron Wurz announced that district expenses are expected to continue outpacing revenue growth over the next few years. He cited the “main driver” of the district’s rising costs as the latest teachers’ contract that boosted professional and starting salaries, costing the district an additional $6 million.
“I agree we needed to do this as we were not competitive and had difficulty attracting new staff, but it is the main driver in our increase of costs,” said Wurz.
Wurz also pointed to soaring special education costs, inflation and cyber charter school funding. Current state law requires identical tuition payments for brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools, despite cyber charters having lower operating costs. Cyber charters have also been criticized for lavish spending of taxpayer dollars, with Wurz noting that the Commonwealth Charter Academy spent $52,800 on Phillies tickets and provided $3,000 fuel stipends for staff members.
While the recently-passed state budget includes cyber charter funding reforms that will allow districts to lower payments on the basis of the cyber charters’ operating expenses, Wurz revealed that the reforms are estimated to generate little savings for the district.
“Our district will still be paying more than we had last year but not as much as if we had done nothing. This was nowhere near what we were expecting,” said Wurz. “Once again, our state legislature let us down. It makes me wonder if all the millions spent lobbying by the cyber charter schools has had an effect.”
But while district expenses are rising, revenue sources remain flat, said Wurz. He noted that increases in property and earned income taxes in past years enabled the district to stave off tax increases but that such revenue growth has now slowed down considerably.
“The growth has been almost flat, certainly nowhere near what the increase of pay was to our staff,” said Wurz. “We do not see that improving much over the next few years.”
Regarding possible solutions, Wurz said that “all options are on the table” but emphasized the need to cut costs to avoid a major financial shortfall in the next few years. He suggested looking at “all aspects of schools” as well as potentially closing “underutilized schools.”
“But we will work with the current administration on how to maintain our educational excellence while reducing our costs to a sustainable level,” said Wurz.
New administrator contract
The board approved a 5-year employment contract renewal with Dr. Bradley Palmer as Assistant Superintendent at a salary of $195,000, with 3.5% annual raises, effective July 1, 2026.
The board also approved a new AP Seminar course for grade 10 and a new AP Comparative Government course for grades 10-12, beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.
The next Pennridge School Board meeting is on December 1 at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit pennridge.org.
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