How Pennsylvania School Boards Work: Duties, Elections, and Vacancies

Pennsylvania school boards work as nine-member elected bodies that govern each of the Commonwealth’s roughly 500 public school districts, setting the budget, hiring the superintendent, adopting district policy, and levying property taxes within limits fixed by state law. The Public School Code of 1949 gives them broad authority; Act 1 of 2006, the Sunshine Act, and a list of incompatible offices box that authority in.¹

What the Board Decides

A school board’s core job is to approve the annual budget covering salaries, buildings, transportation, and instructional materials, and to adopt the policies that govern academics, student conduct, and extracurriculars.¹ The single most consequential vote a board takes is hiring the superintendent, who then runs the district day to day and carries out board policy.

Boards also approve collective bargaining agreements with teachers’ unions, authorize construction and service contracts, and decide whether to close or consolidate schools. Every action has to fit inside the Pennsylvania Constitution, the School Code, and federal law.

Property Taxes and the Act 1 Index

Local property taxes pay for most district operations, and this is where state law most directly limits what a board can do. Act 1 of 2006, the Taxpayer Relief Act, caps annual property tax increases at an “index” tied to the statewide average weekly wage and the employment cost index.² The Pennsylvania Department of Education publishes the index for every district each year, with a slightly higher figure allowed in districts with more low-income households.

A board that wants to go above its index has two options. It can put the increase on the ballot at the election immediately before the fiscal year it would take effect, where a majority of voters must approve it.² Or it can qualify for a state-approved referendum exception. The Department of Education recognizes exceptions for grandfathered school construction debt, voter-approved construction debt, rising special education costs, and increases in required retirement contributions.³ Boards cannot impose entirely new taxes that weren’t levied in the 2005–2006 fiscal year without voter approval either.

Who Sits on the Board

Every standard Pennsylvania district has nine directors serving four-year terms.¹ Elections are staggered: four seats are on the ballot in one municipal election cycle, five seats two years later. That design prevents a complete turnover in a single election.

By default, all nine directors are elected at large, so every voter in the district votes for every seat. A board or a petition of voters can switch to regional elections instead. A petition needs signatures from at least 25 percent of the highest vote cast for any school director in the last municipal election. Regional plans divide the district into either three or nine zones of roughly equal population, and the court of common pleas has to approve the boundaries. Some districts run hybrids, with some seats regional and some at large.

Philadelphia and Chester Upland

Two districts don’t elect their boards. Philadelphia’s nine-member Board of Education is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by City Council, with members serving four-year terms that track the mayor’s term.⁴ The current structure replaced the state-controlled School Reform Commission, which disbanded in 2017. Chester Upland also operates under an appointed board.

Qualifications and Who Can’t Serve

Section 322 of the Public School Code sets the basic requirements: Pennsylvania citizenship, at least 18 years old, good moral character, and residence in the district for at least one year before the election or appointment.¹ The trickier part is the list of positions you can’t hold at the same time as a school director seat:

Municipal and county offices, including mayor, county commissioner, district attorney, municipal council member, township supervisor, township commissioner, tax collector, assessor, constable, auditor, and comptroller
City, borough, or township treasurer
Any teacher, principal, supervisor, or other employee of the same school district
Executive director or assistant executive director of an intermediate unit

The employee restriction is the one that surprises people. Working for a district in any role disqualifies you from that district’s board. You can serve on a different district’s board as long as the two districts do not share a joint school or department. Career and technical schools, intermediate units, and community colleges are not treated as joint schools for this purpose, though their employees face separate restrictions on serving on the boards that oversee them. The rule also runs the other direction: a sitting school director cannot run for municipal council.

Getting on the Ballot

Pennsylvania school board elections use cross-filing, a feature almost unique to these races and judicial contests. The Election Code lets a school board candidate file nomination petitions with both major parties, so a single candidate can appear on the Democratic and Republican primary ballots at the same time.⁵ Win both primaries and you have effectively won the general. The idea is that school board service is nonpartisan, even though candidates work through the party structure.

To reach the ballot, candidates circulate nomination petitions and collect signatures from registered voters in the district, with the required number set by the Election Code and varying by district type. Petitions go to the county board of elections by the spring filing deadline. The primary falls in May and the general in November of odd-numbered municipal election years. Winners take office the first Monday of December after the election.

Mid-Term Vacancies

When a director resigns, dies, or becomes disqualified during a term, the remaining board members appoint a replacement from among the district’s qualified voters. If the board can’t agree within 30 days, ten or more resident taxpayers can petition the court of common pleas to make the appointment instead.¹ A deadlocked board hands the decision to a judge.

The appointee doesn’t finish the full remaining term. They hold the seat until the first Monday of December after the first municipal election that occurs more than 60 days after the vacancy, and voters choose someone at that election to fill whatever remains of the original term. The Sunshine Act bars boards from using executive session to fill an elected-office vacancy, so both the discussion and the vote have to happen in a public meeting.⁶

The Job Pays Nothing

Pennsylvania school directors receive no salary. State law prohibits compensation for their service, so every school director in the Commonwealth is a volunteer.⁷ Boards typically meet twice a month, with committee work, budget sessions, and community events on top of that. Districts may reimburse directors for travel and conference expenses, but the service itself is unpaid. Bills to change the no-compensation rule have been introduced periodically without passing.

Sunshine Act Requirements

The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act requires school boards to conduct all official business in meetings open to the public, including deliberations and not just final votes.⁸ Districts have to post advance notice of every meeting, keep minutes in the public record, and provide a public comment period before the board acts.

Executive session is allowed only for a defined list of reasons:

Personnel matters involving specific employees (hiring, firing, discipline, evaluation), though the affected employee can request in writing that the discussion be public
Labor negotiation strategy and bargaining sessions
Real estate purchase or lease discussions, until the board secures an option or agreement
Consultation with the board’s attorney on pending or anticipated litigation
Matters that would violate legal privilege or confidentiality, including investigations of possible legal violations
Security plans or emergency measures whose disclosure could jeopardize public safety

No vote or binding decision can happen in executive session.⁶ Any official action has to return to open session. Boards that violate the Sunshine Act risk having decisions invalidated, and individual directors can face personal liability for willful violations.

Federal Rules That Also Apply

State law is not the only constraint. Districts receiving Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding must provide a free appropriate public education to children with disabilities and generally maintain their special education spending from year to year; dropping below the prior year’s level can jeopardize federal funding.⁹ The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act limits how districts handle student records, and board membership by itself does not grant access to individually identifiable student information; a specific FERPA exception, such as a health or safety emergency, has to apply.¹⁰ Districts using regional election maps must also comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and at-large systems have themselves been challenged under Section 2 in districts with significant minority populations.

1
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Public School Code of 1949
2
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Taxpayer Relief Act – Act 1 of 2006
3
Department of Education. Referendum Exceptions
4
School District of Philadelphia. About Us – Board of Education
5
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Cross-filed School Board Petition Circulation
6
Pennsylvania General Assembly. 65 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes 708 – Executive Sessions
7
Pennsylvania General Assembly. School Board Director Compensation – HB 266
8
Office of Open Records. Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act
9
U.S. Department of Education. IDEA Grants to States Part B Sec 611
10
U.S. Department of Education. FERPA – Protecting Student Privacy