On a recent evening inside Bensalem High School, about two dozen residents gathered for an informal question-and-answer session organized by the district’s public relations committee as the school budget season began. The meeting was meant to give community members a chance to ask questions and hear directly from school leaders, but it quickly became a candid accounting of how the Bensalem Township School District arrived at what officials are now calling a “severe financial situation.”
The crisis first came into public view after School Board Vice President Stephanie Gonzalez Ferrandez said Superintendent Samuel Lee briefed the newly seated, Democratic-controlled board on December 10 — ten days after it took office — that the district was in serious financial trouble. Ferrandez said administrators had known about the problems as early as September, yet the prior board was not informed, a point that left both new and returning members unsettled.
“This got dropped on a brand new school board on December 10th, so we’re reeling here — why didn’t you tell us? What’s going on here?” Ferrandez said during the session.
She later told Patch that even veteran board members were surprised and that the new board was now trying to manage a situation it inherited while being mindful of taxes and trying not to slash programs. A school board committee separately announced that it would hold a public Q&A meeting on Tuesday night to provide residents with more answers going into the budget season, and a flyer about that meeting was circulated.
Board members said they face a projected $15–16 million deficit if there is no tax increase at all, while also projecting a possible 8.2% increase that would exceed Pennsylvania’s Act 1 index. Officials scheduled a meeting to address the Act 1 exception for February 18, that seeking an exception does not automatically mean taxes will rise by that amount.
The immediate financial strain stems largely from special education and charter school costs. Ferrandez told residents that these obligations have pushed the district about $4.5 million over budget. Lee later issued a written statement saying the shortfall is driven by rising special education expenses and ongoing charter funding requirements that are mandated by the state and largely outside local control, while adding that the district is reviewing all expenditures and working with the board on responsible decisions.
School Director Rebecca Mirra said that over the past decade, inadequate oversight allowed district savings to be depleted, that what appeared to be a recent surplus was actually temporary COVID relief funding that has now run out, and that the prior GOP majority’s lack of transparency and planning left the new board facing the current crisis.
At the community meeting, board member Stephanie Agan said the district has nearly exhausted its savings. She said cuts are being considered and that some level of tax increase is likely, though she does not speak for the full board. Several residents expressed frustration that the district relied on past reserves instead of raising revenue earlier. One longtime resident warned that rising taxes could eventually force her to leave the township after 53 years of living there.
“I’m not going to be able to live in Bensalem at some point and I’ve lived here 53 years,” she said.
School Director Rachel Fingles said that since 2021, 70% of all local tax increases have gone solely to cover rising charter school special education costs. School Director Leann Hart said the number of students attending charter schools has not changed much in recent years, but the number receiving special education services has increased by nearly 360% since 2022, dramatically raising district payments. Hart said the way funding is determined at the state level places an unsustainable burden on local taxpayers and that residents should pay attention to the roles of their state representative and state senator.
Hart also described attending a January 16 Bucks County Intermediate Unit legislative breakfast with school board members from all 13 districts in the IU. She said State Rep. Kathleen “KC” Tomlinson and State Sen. Frank Farry did not attend, leaving Bensalem without representation while other districts had lawmakers present. Hart said the district’s financial problems cannot simply be managed away by the school board.
Newly elected School Director Rodger Allen compared the district’s fiscal issues to a pear tree in his yard that kept growing back because it was never uprooted. He said the district has relied on surface-level fixes like tax increases instead of addressing root causes such as overspending and rapidly rising special education and charter tuition costs. Allen argued that classifications for special education matter because they require districts to send substantially more money to charter schools, and he said Bensalem has lacked consistent advocacy in Harrisburg on these funding formulas.
Ferrandez clarified that the board is not actually planning for a $15 million deficit, but she laid out two budget scenarios: if taxes rise by 8.2% and no spending is cut, the district would still project a roughly $6 million deficit; if taxes rise only 4.2% with no cuts, the deficit would exceed $11 million. She said the $15 million figure was raised because some members felt it would be sound to both close the gap and rebuild the district’s depleted fund balance savings.
Ferrandez also said the board is not “projecting” an 8.2% tax increase and is actively looking for ways to reduce costs to avoid going that high. Still, eight of the nine board members voted this month to request an Act 1 exception, because state law requires a district to seek that flexibility if it might need to exceed 4.2% to cover special education costs. Ferrandez said the request simply allows the board to go up to 8.2% if necessary, but does not commit it to doing so.
Throughout the meeting, board members said they cannot solve the problem alone and will need help from the state. Ferrandez encouraged residents to check the district website for updates and attend future meetings as officials continue to weigh options. The district is considering a range of possibilities, but no final decisions have been made about the exact size of any tax hike or what reductions might occur.
