At the final meeting of the 2025-2026 school year, the Quakertown Community School Board met to discuss and consider both the final budget and a tax increase for the upcoming year.

            Quakertown's final budget expenditure for 2026-2027 is $152,047,174, per the school board's online website. Quakertown's total expected revenue, including the 3.5 percent tax increase, is $139,243,326. When the time came for discussion of this budget, two members of the board, Jon Kern and Brian Reimers, both spoke out against the proposed budget as an unfair burden to be placed on taxpayers.

            Reimers called the 3.5 percent increase "aggressive" and advocated for a lower increase.

            Members Rebecca Merola and Todd Hippauf countered by pointing out how Quakertown's tax increases have been, in previous years, lower than neighboring districts. Merola also added that this increase "doesn't get us anywhere close to where we need to be," referring to the large deficit, and that this increase would "cost the average taxpayer an additional $166 [annually]."

            Board President David O'Donnell pointed out that the additional 3.5 percent will only close the distance on the increases in benefits for staff, and would not even begin contributing to the larger overall deficit in QCSD's budget.

            By and large, board members voiced sympathy for taxpayers while concluding that a tax increase was necessary to supplant the budget.

            Roberta Rogers said that the board needs to be "highly critical of the expenditures that we have going forward."

            On the final vote, the budget proposal passed by a vote of 7-2. Members Kern and Reimers voted no, while all other members voted yes.

            After the budget vote, the board took the official tax increase vote. The tax resolution is considered separately from the overall budget. The millage increase passed by a vote of 8-1, with Kern being the sole no.

            Reimers, who had voted no on the overall budget, viewed the separate tax vote as perfunctory, considering that the budget itself had already been passed. The new millage rate is 181.80, or $18.180 dollars per $100 dollars of assessment.

            The board also approved a new tax collector, Raymond Goodnoe, to be the temporary tax collector for Milford Township and Trumbauersville Borough. The school district must concur with the municipalities that the appointment is acceptable, as the tax collector will collect QCSD's taxes for both municipalities. Both Milford and Trumbauersville had already approved the appointment.

            Goodnoe is currently Richland Township's elected tax collector and will begin covering both of the new municipalities in July.