May 1, 2023

Dear WPSD Community Members,

I am writing to share information with our William Penn School District community about the proposed budget for the 2023-2024 school year. It was shared at our Budget Advisory Committee Meeting on April 20th which can be viewed here. The slide desk that was presented, which contains detailed information about the proposed budget, can be viewed here.

The proposed budget will be further discussed at our Budget and Finance Committee Meeting on Thursday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. The adoption of the preliminary budget will take place at the Board Business Meeting on Monday, May 22, and the adoption of the final budget will take place at the Board Business Meeting on Monday, June 26. Both of those meetings will take place in-person at the WPSD Administrative Building on Green Avenue and via Zoom. Please see the calendar on our website for more details.

In the meantime, here are some key takeaways:

Budgeted revenues for the 2023-2024 school year are expected to increase by $5,120,537 (17%) from the 2022-2023 school year. This is due primarily to increases in state funding, the Ready to Learn Block Grant, and Title I funding. These are offset slightly by decreases in other programs, such as Level Up.
The District is projecting to add, a net, 36 new positions in schools, primarily in the form of new Instructional Assistants and Academic Interventionists to enhance academic achievement. Additionally, we have included a School Resource Officer for Penn Wood High School – GAC and other supports for our School Safety Officers. These are the primary increases in funding that we are requesting to support our students.
We are working to ensure that our teachers are on their correct salary step, so additional funding is required to help meet that goal. We have worked with the William Penn Education Association (WPEA) to identify staff that would be impacted.
Our current proposed budget shows total revenues of $115,934,862 and total expenditures of $119,696,548. This leaves us with a proposed budget gap of $3,761,686 which will need to be filled. Over the next few weeks, we will endeavor to see where we can secure additional funds to cover this gap or else we will need to make some difficult decisions about what needs to be modified or eliminated. Our mission is to nurture and empower all students to become career and/or college ready. We continually strive to ensure that we are doing all that we can to meet this goal and to have the resources we need to best serve our students.

Best regards,

Eric J. Becoats, Ed.D.