William Penn SD projects $6 million shortfall for 2025-26 after identified savings; district outlines staffing cuts

Dr. B. Coates, district leader, told attendees at the February budget meeting that the William Penn School District must identify about $9,500,000 to balance its budget for the 2025-26 school year.

“Right now, we are in need to identify about $9,500,000 for our 2526 budget,” Dr. B. Coates said, outlining district plans to find savings and to reassign staff.

The district presented a package of staffing and benefit adjustments that administrators say will total a little more than $2.5 million. That package includes an anticipated $750,000 reduction in the use of personal care aides (PCAs); about $500,000 in insurance savings from renegotiated vision and dental contracts; a reduction in academic interventionists from 16 to 8, listed at approximately $940,000 in savings; reassignment of three central-office secretaries to fill three vacant school secretarial positions; and changes to assistant-principal allocations that the district estimates will save about $160,000.

Those identified savings, combined with a set of technical adjustments PFM included in its February projection, reduced the previously reported gap. Ian Tyson, a consultant with Public Financial Management (PFM), said his firm’s adjustments and lower-than-expected borrowing costs trimmed about $3.2 million from the January projection.

“Together, those two numbers, the adjustment, and then the identified savings would leave $3,500,000.0 lehi over in the shortfall that would need to be, covered by other means,” Tyson said, explaining how the district arrived at remaining financing options.

Tyson then summarized how the governor’s proposed 2025-26 Commonwealth budget would affect the projection: the district could expect nearly $5.7 million more from major state subsidies, which in PFM’s modeling would add roughly $3.0 million beyond the historical baseline assumptions and cut the remaining gap to about $500,000 if the governor’s proposal becomes law.

PFM and district leaders repeatedly cautioned that the governor’s proposal is not final. Tyson said the district may have to adopt a budget before the Commonwealth’s final allocations are known, leaving uncertainty that could require additional adjustments.

Act 1 of 2006 limits how much school districts may raise taxes year to year; Tyson said that raising taxes to the maximum allowable under Act 1 would generate another roughly $3.0 million in revenue in the district’s model and likewise reduce remaining shortfalls.

Board members and attendees pressed for more detail. A question about why academic interventionists were chosen for cuts led Dr. B. Coates to explain the district aimed to preserve some level of in-school intervention while reducing the total headcount across the district. “We chose that position because in most schools, there are two academic interventionists, and we did not want to take every additional support that we have provided over the last four years,” Coates said.

Administrators told staff in one-on-one conversations that the district’s goal is to avoid layoffs where possible by reassigning employees into vacancies; Dr. B. Coates said about 30 vacancies currently exist that could provide reassignment opportunities. “Our goal is to make sure that people have a job in 2526. It may not be the job that you currently have,” Coates said.

The district did not adopt any formal actions during the meeting. Officials said PFM will refine projections as state budget negotiations proceed, and the district will continue internal work on the staffing and benefit changes described at the meeting.

The board scheduled additional budget work for coming weeks and invited the public to the next budget meeting on March 20 to follow this planning process.