Bensalem superintendent gets new contract, raise. Why the school board vote was split

Bensalem Township School District will continue to be led by Superintendent Samuel Lee after he was reappointed in a split vote during Monday's board meeting.

Lee has been the top administrator since 2015 after spending five years as superintendent of the Bristol Township School District. He has a total of 43 years in education, and his new term set to begin July 1.

Board President Joseph Pettyjohn voted to reappoint Lee to another term alongside Vice President Kim Rivera and board members Marc Cohen, Heather Nicholas and Jiten Patel.

"I extend my heartfelt thanks to the board of school directors for their confidence in my leadership and their unwavering commitment to the success of our students," Lee said after the vote.

"I look forward to building on our shared successes, embracing new opportunities and continuing our mission to provide the best possible education for all."

Rivera spoke from her experience as a school board member for the past 16 years, calling Lee the "most dedicated superintendent" that she's ever worked with.

"We have dedicated administrators, we have dedicated teachers, we have a dedicated cabinet, and I think what the board needs to do is let them do their job," Rivera said.

Board members Stephanie Ferrandez, Dr. Deborah King, Rebecca Mirra and Karen Winters cast the four dissenting votes.

What's in Lee's new superintendent contract with Bensalem?

Lee's new contract includes a raise, with a yearly 3% cost of living increase over the four-year term, according to board members. The contract was not made public ahead of the vote, and a records request is pending with the district.

The raise would bring Lee's annual salary up to around $232,000, board members said. This would make Lee one of the 10 highest-paid school superintendents in Bucks County if other administrators' salaries remain stable, based on data from the 2023-24 school year.

The contract also gives Lee a $600 monthly stipend for cellphone and car mileage reimbursement, according to board members.

"How can we grant a raise like this when we can't afford other things that our children need?" Mirra asked.

"There needs to be an overhaul, and Dr. Lee is the man at the top."

The contract also requires all board members to include Lee on any correspondence they have with district staff, which some members worried would restrict their ability to receive honest answers with their boss watching.

"I anticipate it will be used as a tool to silence staff," Ferrandez said.

This stipulation is unprecedented, she said, and was not included in other superintendent contracts they looked at in comparison.

"As a school board member I should be able to communicate with staff to gain insights into the challenges and successes within our schools," Winters said.

Winters added that Lee has a longstanding habit of leaving emails from board members unanswered.

"While better in recent times, it has quite often happened that my emails aren't responded to even when I ask a direct question and having more emails in a box is probably not going to help that," she said.

Nicholas countered that this requirement is the best way to ensure that Lee is in the loop with everything board members are discussing and working on so that nothing falls through the cracks.

Ahead of the vote, Pettyjohn argued that the salary and the contract stipulations are "not out of the norm" and that Lee's experience in the district "serves us well."

Who is responsible for Bensalem's low test scores?

Every board member spoke highly of Lee's character and his passion for helping students.

But some still expressed doubts that he is the right administrator to carry the district into the future, specifically pointing to low test scores as evidence of a need for new leadership.

"Our district is not performing well academically — its a direct reflection of the superintendent," Winters said.

In 2024, Bensalem students scored below the state average in every subject on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, known as the PSSA, a series of tests given in grades three through eight each year to determine students' proficiency in English and math. Students in grades four and eight additionally are tested in science.

"Our mission is to educate," Ferrandez said. "Unfortunately, if you look at our scores for the past 10 years of Dr. Lee's tenure — including before COVID — there has been decline."

"No amount of successes in sports or kindness is going to address our math scores."

But Nicholas pointed to a lack of student interest in standardized testing as one potential reason why the test scores may not accurately reflect the district's proficiency in certain areas.

She also noted that many of the district's students are coming from other areas and could be starting from a lower baseline than some of their peers.

"We don't know where they're coming from, we don't know what they had as a background," Nicholas said.

"It makes me nervous when we try to focus only on test scores because it's not fair."

Test scores for the current school year may not be publicly available until the fall.

Lacey Latch is the development reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intelligencer. She can be reached atLLatch@gannett.com.