Central Bucks has hired a new superintendent from Great Valley

The Central Bucks school board on Tuesday voted to hire Joanna Wexler, assistant superintendent in the Great Valley School District, as its next superintendent.

Wexler will take over Central Bucks, the state’s third-largest district, on July 1. The board gave her a five-year contract, with a starting salary of $255,000.

Her hiring comes after Central Bucks last year fired former Superintendent Steven Yanni over his handling of alleged abuse in an elementary school special education classroom.

Wexler, who has been assistant superintendent in Great Valley since 2020, previously spent six years as the Chester County district’s director of special education and student services.

“From the very beginning of the process, Dr. Wexler’s resume stood out,” board president Heather Reynolds said at Tuesday’s meeting, calling special education “an area where strong leadership and deep expertise are not just valuable, but essential.”

Reynolds said Wexler brought “confidence, clarity, and a genuine sense of purpose” to the interview process, and called her honesty “refreshing and very much welcomed.”

The board’s nine members, who are all Democrats, voted 8-1 to approve Wexler. Karen Smith, the lone no vote, said that while Wexler had an “impressive resume,” she believed Central Bucks needed a leader who had experience both leading a school district and teaching in a classroom.

Smith said she hoped Wexler proved her wrong, because the district needs “stability and leadership to recover from the turmoil we’ve had the past few years.”

Yanni — who appealed his firing — had taken over Central Bucks after the abrupt resignation of former Superintendent Abram Lucabaugh, who left after the board flipped from Republican to Democratic control in the November 2023 election.

Wexler thanked the board Tuesday “for trusting me and putting confidence in me as your next superintendent.”