Central Bucks School Board To Vote On $417M Final Budget

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Central Bucks School Board will meet in special session on Tuesday, June 18 to consider passage of a $418.4 million final budget for the 2024-25 school year.

The administration is recommending the board adopt the spending plan with a 5.3 percent tax increase, which represents the full index amount allowed for 2024-25 without going for a referendum.

The proposed final budget will fund the operations of the school district, which operates 27 buildings, educates 27,000 students and employees between 3,000 and 4,000 teachers and administrators in Central Bucks County.

The increase is needed, district officials say, to plug a deficit between revenues and expenditures driven by the district's contractural obligations, the addition of personnel due to changing student needs, increases in expenditures, and significant capital improvements that will be needed to be done over the next few years to the district's aging infrastructure and to prepare for grade realignment.

“I know it’s not popular," said the district's business manager Tara Houser. "My own district is going to full index where I live. I’m not super happy about it but I also know there's nothing I can do about it from the standpoint of it’s the needs of the district that have to be met,” said Houser.

The 5.3 percent increase equates to $296 more a year in taxes on a property with an assessed value of $42,000.

Even with the pending increase, Houser noted Central Bucks would still be the third lowest taxed district in the county behind Palisades and New Hope-Solebury.

“We are the third lowest tax rate in Bucks County. Council Rock, which is closest in size to us, is six millage points higher. And they have been for the last five years," she said. "So we are well positioned within our county even with a tax increase.”

School board member Rick Haring said he believes the proposed final budget "well positions the district" for future expenditures both known and unknown.

"We're sitting here facing a lot of big projects and a lot of things that are good for this district, good for the students and good for what we know we want to be doing. But unfortunately they don't come for free," said Haring.

"There have been a lot of things not taken care of and addressed - some of the buildings, the infrastructure and some things that have not been looked after for a while. All these things combined, they cost," said Haring.

"None of us want to see our taxes go up, but when you think about what it's going toward it's tough to say hey, can you cut a little more. These are things that we're facing, which unfortunately represents the cost of doing business, the cost of running this district in the way we want to do it and that's right for the people that we have in it," said Haring. "I get it. It's going to be tough. But I think we need to be clear and keep being clear to the community. Just the contractural increases. You can't hide behind that stuff. It's real."

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. in the board room of the district’s Educational Services Building located at 16 Welden Drive in Doylestown.