Upper Perkiomen School Board begins its 2026-27 budget deliberations with an $8.68 million deficit. Last week, district Business Administrator Drew Bishop presented a budget summary to the finance committee with expenditures totaling $88.697 million.

            Bishop described the budget presentation as a worst-case scenario with the most conservative assertions during a March 24 finance committee meeting. He told the members it does not include any money from the state and assumes flat tax revenue.

            Total projected revenue is listed at $80.286 million. Board President Melanie Cunningham did not mention the presentation during her committee report during the March 26 board workshop meeting. She said she did not want to "pontificate on a new tax increase."  

            Two days later, Cunningham claimed she has not yet reconciled the projected deficit "in my head." In a March 28 email message, she admitted to not being happy that the budget would still include a deficit even if the board raises taxes as much as allowed. According to the document, a deficit of $1.592 million would remain even if the district generates an additional $7.088 million in revenue, the most allowed by law.

            "We have a lot of work to do" before the board approves the final budget in June, said Bishop, who informed committee members that a similar process last year started with a $7.4 million deficit.

            "I am not happy about that and I need to go through the whole budget presentation so far to see where all that money is budgeted," she wrote. "Stay tuned."

            The summary shows a 5.21 percent increase in salaries ($34.999 million) over the current year and a 6.4 percent jump in the cost of benefits ($22.017 million). Those projections account for an additional $3.879 million in expenses.

            The presentation includes additional salary requests for seven positions totaling $669,380 in salary and benefits. Each includes a corresponding priority listing.

            Two board certified behavior analyst for expanded Kindergarten to 12 programming with an increased need for behavioral support for identified students, with a salary of $135,885 for each, along with a social worker in the special education department that would pay $116,433, as well as an ESL teacher, due to increased enrollment and growing number of students with lower levels of English proficiency, with a $116,434 salary, and a special education teacher at $74,024, received the highest priority. The presentation identifies them as must-haves or legally required.

            Two student nursing positions, listed at a total cost of $79,168, and two assistant track coaches, totaling $11,451, received the middle designation, a strong recommendation by administrators. None received the lowest of three designations, identified as not required, but would be nice to have.

            According to Bishop, the district expects to utilize $8.1 million in the capital reserve fund to complete multiple roof projects. He reminded the committee that administrators crafted last year to complete the projects over four or five years.

            "If we keep setting money aside, we should have enough to cover those projects," the business administrator said during the committee meeting.

             The committee agreed to recommend a proposal by the district's director of technology to order an uninterrupted power supply sooner rather than later. Jim Roth described the equipment as vital to the district's data center when the power goes out.

            Roth recommended that the board order the part, which he described as a large battery pack, due to its long lead time. He told the committee that it would be delivered later this year, during the next fiscal year.

            The district has allocated $80,000 in the next school budget to purchase the item. According to Roth, administrators last changed the battery five years ago. He described the 15-year-old item as aging.