Central Bucks School District is staring down a $14 million deficit and a sixth straight year of rising property taxes. A fast-growing cost driver hitting other Bucks County districts could make the picture worse: employee spending on GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound.

Superintendent Joanna Wexler warned at an Oct. 5 community forum at CB West that the district is "literally running out of money" and could exhaust its reserves within two years, the Bucks County Herald reported. The school board approved a $460.4 million budget for 2026–2027 with a 5.7% property-tax increase, adding roughly $344 to the average homeowner's bill.

Central Bucks has not publicly identified GLP-1 costs as a budget line item. But two neighboring districts have.

Pennridge and Pennsbury sound the alarm

At Pennridge School District, spending on anti-obesity medications surged from about $86,000 in 2023 to nearly $1.3 million by 2026, as the number of employees using the drugs jumped from roughly 15 to 120, PhillyBurbs first reported Tuesday, Oct. 13. The cost spike helped force a second consecutive property-tax increase.

"Folks are getting Wegovy left and right," Pennridge Superintendent Angelo Berrios said during an April 2026 board meeting. "We need to have some controls put in place."

Pennsbury School District faces a separate $12.5 million shortfall. Chief Financial Officer Kimberly Steffy told finance committee members that 40% of recent drug-coverage bills submitted to the district were for prescription weight-loss drugs, the Bucks County Herald reported.

A statewide pattern

Jim Pyne, a consultant at Conrad Siegel whose firm advises about 150 Pennsylvania school systems, told PhillyBurbs that clients are seeing year-over-year health-cost increases of about 10%, the highest in a decade or more. He estimated more than a third of his school-district clients offer full GLP-1 coverage, while up to a quarter offer none. Even with manufacturer rebates, the per-person cost runs $500 to $800 a month through insurance, Pyne said.

Pennridge board member Leah Foster Rash raised concerns at a June meeting that dropping coverage could disproportionately hurt lower-earning staff. Berrios said the benefit is locked into the teachers union contract until 2028.

Central Bucks budget context

Central Bucks exceeded Pennsylvania's Act 1 tax cap of 3.5% by applying a special education exemption. The district trimmed its deficit from $22.3 million to $19.4 million through salary and benefit reductions, according to Bucks County Beacon reporting on a support-staff contract approved over the summer.

The board hired Wayne Gehris as chief financial officer effective July 1. At Reading School District, Gehris grew the fund balance from $6 million to $100 million over roughly a dozen years, according to a district announcement.

Central Bucks has not disclosed whether its health plan covers GLP-1 weight-loss drugs or what it spends on them. The district's next Finance and Operations Committee meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12.