John Harris principal Roma Benjamin
Harrisburg’s main high school has a new, but familiar, principal.
Board members moved unanimously at a Tuesday night meeting to hire John Harris’s acting principal, Roma Benjamin, to fill the role permanently.
A longtime school district employee, Benjamin was brought on temporarily to fill the post in December. Following a string of former John Harris principals who had short-lived stints at the school, the district began a national search for a principal who would be “committed” long term and could help improve student performance earlier this year.
“You are the person for that job, and we support you. We’re behind you, and we appreciate you,” board President Roslyn Copeland told Benjamin after the vote.
Benjamin has more than 20 years of administrative experience and holds a doctorate in education leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
“I’m just so appreciative to be back with the Harrisburg board school district,” Benjamin said.
Harrisburg School Board
The board also voted Tuesday to approve $6.8 million worth of demolition contracts for William Penn after discussing project quotes for the 100-year-old, long-vacant building earlier this month.
The cost includes a $6.2 million contract with the Gordian Group to raze the structure, plus contracts to remove asbestos prior to demolition ($257,000), to remove asbestos discovered during demolition ($200,000), and to conduct on-site airborne asbestos testing ($100,000).
The project also spends roughly $25,000 for compaction testing—to ensure the site of the building can be built on later, if needed.
The demolition, proposed to begin this summer, would take an estimated six to eight months to complete.
“We will be providing weekly updates on the progress of the demo, as well as certainly any asbestos that we find, or any type of issues that we find during that project,” Chief Operations Administrator John Reedy said.
Brian Carter marked the board’s sole member voting ‘no’ on William Penn’s demolition contracts.
Marcia Stokes, chief financial officer for the district
Beginning a conversation that will continue next month, Chief Financial Officer Marcia Stokes also spoke to the board about property taxes, advocating to continue with small, incremental increases, building on last year’s 2% hike.
“Our community can at least plan for that,” she said.
She recommended that the district increase the tax rate by at least 2% for the upcoming school year as not increasing taxes would leave the district with an approximate $1 million deficit.
Chief Recovery Officer Lori Suski noted that the only way to overcome a deficit, without raising taxes, is to cut expenses.
“Cutting reams of paper isn’t going to make a million dollars. It’s cutting people, and that’s what we don’t want to see happen,” she said.
Board member Danielle Robinson voiced concerns about whether continuous raises might drive residents out of the city or force them to make hard choices about which bills to pay.
“We have to be realistic in our community—how it affects the people that are living here,” Robinson said.
The final budget is due in June.
The board also unanimously approved a $12.8 million capital budget for the 2026-2027 school year.
Alongside William Penn’s demo, the budget included $1.8 million in summer upgrades for Lincoln Elementary (approved unanimously earlier in the meeting), a $2.7 million roof restoration for Marshall Math and Science Academy (partially funded through a grant) and $500,000 to build out a wing of John Harris for career and technical education (CTE) programming.
The board approved the budget 8-1, with Carter voting ‘no.’
Board member Danielle Robinson
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