‘Everything is up for consideration’ as Wallingford-Swarthmore tackles $2.6 million budget deficit

Standing before a room full of parents, administrators, and taxpayers on Monday morning, Wallingford-Swarthmore School District Superintendent Russell Johnston opened the conversation: “None of us is as smart as all of us.”

At the listening session at Strath Haven Middle School, Johnston and members of the Wallingford-Swarthmore administration took suggestions from the public and laid out the district’s dire budget issues, which came into the public eye at a board meeting last month.

The main message Johnston came to deliver: As Wallingford-Swarthmore works to cut its budget, everything is on the table, no idea is too big, and no cut is too small.

“None of this is easy and, like I said, everything is up for consideration right now,” Johnston said, emphasizing that the district is “turning over every stone” and is eager to hear good ideas.

The Wallingford-Swarthmore School District is facing a $2.6 million budget deficit for the 2027-28 school year. Administrators say the shortfall is due to a combination of factors, including runaway spending, rising staffing costs, a stagnant revenue base, and costly infrastructure repairs, which are needed due to years of deferred maintenance.

At the community meeting (which was the first of two sessions that took place on Monday), Johnston and colleagues broke down expenses related to staffing, transportation, special services, curriculum, and the district’s long-range capital plan, which was approved in June.

The conversation stretched across the big picture and the nitty-gritty.

How often should classrooms be deep-cleaned? How important is renovating the swimming pool? Should the district run late buses for students in after-school clubs? Could the number of district administrators be reduced?

Suzanne Herron, a parent of young children in the district, said the meeting felt “thoughtful and transparent.”

“I walked out of there feeling pretty confident that they were going to think about the right things,” Herron said.

Johnston took the helm of Wallingford-Swarthmore in May, closing an embattled chapter for the Delaware County school district. The district parted ways with its former superintendent, Marseille Wagner, with a $330,000 payout in August 2024. Wagner was accused of spending excessively on administrative initiatives and facilitating an unhealthy work environment for staff, including pitting staffers against one another and dismissing efforts for consensus building.

The district and Wagner said in a statement at the time that they had “mutually agreed to amicably end their contractual agreement.”

Wagner’s tenure hung over the conversation at Strath Haven Middle School. Attendees asked how many administrators had been added under the prior superintendent and how the administrator-to-student ratio compared with neighboring districts (administrators said they didn’t have exact numbers off the top of their heads). One parent said that while she was grateful for the open discussion, she struggled to understand how the district got to such a dire place.

Parents also raised concerns that a disconnect remains between school needs and what taxpayers, especially those without children in the district, see as wasteful spending

In contrast to neighboring districts like Rose Tree Media and Radnor, which are home to a mix of residential and commercial properties that feed their tax bases, Wallingford-Swarthmore is small and largely residential. This means its school district tax base is powered almost completely by homeowners, many of whom feel stretched thin by the growing tax burden. Swarthmore College, a major presence in the borough, pays limited taxes as a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

On top of local taxes, Delaware County is expected to increase residential property taxes by 19% for next year. That’s in addition to the 23% increase the county approved for 2025.

Joyce Federman, an attendee who recently moved to the area and does not have children in the school district, said she has been “staggered” by the amount of school taxes she pays.

“My tax burden is unbearable,” she added.

District officials emphasized that there will be continued opportunities for feedback as the budget process continues. The school board finance committee is set to present a potential budget reallocation strategy on Tuesday, and the board is set to vote on reallocation expectations on Dec. 22. A budget must be adopted by June.

This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.