CBSD fires superintendent, teacher, and aide; approves tax hike – Bucks Round-Up – June 19, 2025
Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect that CBSD Superintendent Steven Yanni was fired, a fact not revealed during last night’s school board meeting or immediately thereafter.
CBSD fires its superintendent as well as a Jamison teacher and aide, approves 5.9 percent tax hike
The Central Bucks School District terminated five district employees at last night’s school board meeting. Two of them were subsequently confirmed to be the teacher and aide staffing a special education classroom at Jamison Elementary where alleged abuse took place. A third was Superintendent Steven Yanni. The nonprofit Disability Rights Pennsylvania (DRP) conducted an investigation earlier this year and said Yanni misled authorities and parents about the abuse accusations. The board’s only Republican, Jim Pepper (Region 2), recused himself from voting on several terminations as his son was among those who suffered the alleged mistreatment.
“Please know that we will do everything in our power to ensure that [such mistreatment] never happens again,” School Board President Susan Gibson (D-Region 1) told meeting attendees.
After the meeting, before the identities of those dismissed were known, the Doylestown Republicans’ Communications Chair Ed Sheppard reproved the Democratic majority. He faulted them for balking at Pepper’s suggestion that the board fire those who made what DRP called “incomplete and misleading” reports to the state child protective services hotline. Sheppard also wants the district to release its own investigative findings.
“At tonight’s meeting, the Central Bucks School Board showed we are going to get more of the same if the board remains unchanged,” Sheppard said. “The Democrat majority declared, as though they were kings, that the public would not be told anything about who was fired or why, and the report taxpayers paid for would not be made public.”
Also last night, the school board approved a $432.4 million budget that includes a 5.9 percent property tax increase. The hike amounts to about $328 more annually for the average homeowner — marking the second consecutive year of significant increases. Last year, residents absorbed a 5.3 percent bump. Board members attributed the increase to growing costs, particularly in special education services. The district has seen rising demand for individualized support, which officials say makes up a substantial portion of the budget. The new tax rate will take effect with the 2025–26 school year.
Four Democrats, including Region Three incumbent Daniel Kimicata, face four Republicans in this year’s school director elections.
Commissioners and sheriff clash over staff raises
Democrats on Bucks County’s Board of Commissioners clashed yesterday with Republican Sheriff Fred Harran over raises and personnel classification changes the sheriff requested for members of his staff. Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia accused Harran and Republican Controller Pamela Van Blunk of prematurely facilitating the pay adjustments while contract negotiations were ongoing.
“It is, by state law, the commissioners who do contract negotiations,” she said.
The sheriff disputed Ellis-Marseglia’s characterization of the process as illegal. He said she and her colleague Bob Harvie (D) were “liars,” a rebuke the commissioners leveled back at him. Harvie commanded the sheriff to cease making remarks, provoking the National Republican Congressional Committee to later castigate him. (Harvie is running for Congress next year against GOP incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick.)
“This outrageous behavior from Corrupt Bob Harvie, the subject of [a Falls Township-related] FBI investigation, is appalling, but sadly unsurprising,” NRCC Spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole said in a statement. “Harvie has a long history of disrespecting law enforcement and jeopardizing the safety of Pennsylvanians, and they have no interest in his dangerous agenda.”
Philly man sentenced in fatal Bristol hit-and-run
A Philadelphia man has been sentenced to serve three to six years in state prison for a hit-and-run crash that killed a Bristol Township man in 2023. Tajaír Delbridge, 26, pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including accidents involving death and tampering with evidence, in connection with the death of 28-year-old Joel Moreau. Moreau was struck while skateboarding along Haines Road around 10:16 p.m. on November 24, 2023. During sentencing, Moreau’s mother and sister delivered emotional impact statements, decrying Delbridge’s decision to flee the scene. Judge Charissa Liller also imposed seven additional years of probation following Delbridge’s prison term.
Middletown Township honors Juneteenth
Middletown Township officially recognized Juneteenth during a recent Board of Supervisors meeting, with a proclamation read aloud by Supervisor Amy Strouse. Strouse highlighted the historical context of the holiday, noting that Juneteenth commemorates the day in 1865, June 19th, when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation — to enforce the freedom of 250,000 enslaved Americans. Juneteenth is now both a state and federal holiday. The board’s recognition aligns with a growing number of Bucks County municipalities acknowledging the significance of the day in American history.
Joe LeCompte hosts LeCompte in the Morning on WBCB 1490. Bradley Vasoli is the senior editor of The Independence.
