Credit: Souderton Area School District
The board heard an update on the 2026-2027 budget process
The Souderton Area School Board’s education-personnel committee Wednesday, Feb. 11 reviewed a planned overhaul of the district’s middle school world language curriculum.
The new curriculum will offer a 6th grade exploratory world language course, providing a general overview of world language and culture, 7th grade French and Spanish courses and 8th grade French, Spanish and Mandarin courses. The district currently only offers French and Spanish language courses to eighth grade students.
The changes are designed to give students the opportunity to explore all three languages prior to high school and align the Indian Crest and Indian Valley middle school schedules, said school officials.
Committee members roundly commended the new curriculum. Implementation is planned for the 2027-2028 school year.
Budget update
The board heard an update on the 2026-2027 budget process. With a maximum property tax increase of 3.5%, the current budget projects roughly $163 million in revenue and $168.7 million in expenditures, yielding a $5.7 million deficit.
Business administrator Michael Taylor said that the administration is working on finding changes to ensure a balanced budget. He pointed to some positive signs, including steady income and transfer tax revenues and an estimated $350,000 in savings from charter school tuition expenses following changes to the charter school funding formula.
The board will vote on the proposed final budget on April 30, with adoption of the final budget scheduled for June 18.
Policy revisions
The policy committee tabled on first reading revisions to board policies on membership, meetings and broadcasting meetings. The policy revisions were up for reconsideration after failing on second reading at the board’s January 22 action meeting following requests from board members Corinne DeGeiso, Rosemary Buetikofer, Alex Wisser and Andrew Souchet for increased transparency and public participation.
The move came after Souchet pointed to the absence of a policy outlining the reconsideration process. Assistant Superintendent Christopher Hey noted that the board is scheduled to approve a functions policy containing clarifying language on the policy reconsideration process at its February 26 action meeting, after which the committee can revisit the policy revisions.
The next Souderton Area School Board meeting is on February 26 at 7 p.m. For more information, visit soudertonsd.org
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