Pottstown School District

The Pottstown School District serves the residents of Pottstown Borough. Its 2022-2023 budget is $68.5 million. The school district has successfully prepared its students for all walks of life. Pottstown graduates have been accepted into some of the nation's most distinguished universities, including Yale, Duke, Haverford, and the University of Pennsylvania in recent years.

School directory

The school district currently employs 540 people. For the 2022-2023 staff directory, click here.

Enrollment in the school district peaked in the 1960s, when it accommodated about 5,000 students. Enrollment declined in the 1970s and early 1980s, when the district closed two elementary schools and one of its two junior high schools. For the last 20 years, enrollment has been fairly stable at about 3,000 to 3,400 students. The district currently operates four elementary schools, a pre-school center, a special education center, a middle school, and a high school.

Spending Outpaces Inflation

In recent times, school district spending has far outpaced inflation. In the last 20 years, the school district’s budget has risen more than 190 percent, from $36 million to $68.5 million, while the rate of inflation during that period was 65 percent. (The district had about the same number of students 20 years ago as it does today.)

Personnel expands dramatically

The expansion of personnel in recent decades has been even more dramatic.

In the 1977-78 school year, the district employed 423 people serving 4,012 students.

Today, 45 years later, in the 2022-2023 school year, the district employs 540 people serving just 3,312 students.

And 45 years ago, the school district operated the Pottstown Parks and Recreation Department. Today, the borough government funds and operates the Parks and Recreation Department.

Pottstown ranks 7th out of 500 districts in taxation

Generous spending makes Pottstown one of the most highly taxed school districts in Pennsylvania. According to state data for the 2020-2021 school year (the latest available), Pottstown ranked 7th out of 500 school districts in “local tax effort.” That means Pottstown’s taxes are higher than 99 percent of the school districts in the Commonwealth.