Quakertown accepts Friedman resignation after capping travel last year

Quakertown Community School District board members approved Superintendent Matthew Friedman’s resignation March 3 after he went out on leave last month.

District and school board officials have declined to provide reasons for the leave, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters.

The resignation comes just months after school board members voted in November to extend Friedman’s contract and give him a raise. They had also revised his contract for provisions for for professional memberships and travel, including conferences.

The contract allowed for up to $20,000 and 20 days for professional memberships, travel, and conferences after Friedman and the board reviewed his calendar and agreed on the calendar and associated costs.

Quakertown’s budget for the 2024–25 school year was about $145.5 million.

The board also voted to approve a severance agreement for an employee whose leave dates match Friedman’s, but did not make the contents of the agreement available on the public agenda.

Friedman’s travel had been subjected to scrutiny by residents in the New Jersey community where he’d previously worked.

Quakertown board capped superintendent’s travel before his leave: docs

The bills lists from 2024 – in the middle of Friedman’s tenure from July 2023 through his leave in February 2026 – suggests that his prior spending on those items exceeded $10,000 per year.

A review of district bill lists 2024 shows that Friedman spent more than $16,000 on travel, including meals, airline tickets and hotels. The figure doesn’t include mileage reimbursements or meals Friedman shared with multiple district officials.

District taxpayers financed airline tickets for Friedman in several of those 12 months.

The district also spent thousands of dollars on memberships for Friedman in that period: One membership purchased for the superintendent in August 2024 for The Education Policy and Leadership Center cost $2,350, according to board documents.

Although the line item on the bills list doesn’t specify what’s included in that membership, the fee is similar to the cost of a yearlong professional development program the center offers.

“The district recognizes the obligation to professional growth and development provided by these affiliations and encourages and permits the Superintendent to participate actively,” the November revision to Friedman’s contract reads.

“Outside activities of the superintendent as noted herein shall not interfere, including professional organizations, with the district functions that are the superintendent’s primary obligations.”

In the same November revision, the school board also changed Friedman’s contract to specify that “outside activities” should not interfere with his work or “create a conflict of interest, it being understood that the superintendent’s main obligations are to the district.”

Friedman’s original contract had already allowed the superintendent to serve as an adjunct professor with the board’s permission. Friedman works part-time at Point Park University.

This semester, he’s set to teach an online course on “content area design and instruction,” according to the university website.

Ocean City residents complained Friedman traveled too much

When Friedman left his prior school district in New Jersey for Quakertown after less than a year, he said he wanted to be closer to home with his family in Chester County.

But Ocean City residents complained that the superintendent had spent too much time away from the district, according to news reports from the time. Members of a local watchdog group alleged that in a 10-month period he had spent more than a fifth of work days out of town, including nearly a month for professional development.

Some Quakertown residents in recent months have questioned on social media why their district hired Friedman after the public criticism of his performance in Ocean City. Other locals have pointed to the departures of several administrators after Friedman’s arrival as a sign of a potential issue.

Friedman’s salary was raised to $240,000 in 2025.

This article was corrected and updated with no information.

Jess Rohan can be reached at usatodayco.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Quakertown accepts Friedman resignation after capping travel last year

Reporting by Jess Rohan, Bucks County Courier Times / Bucks County Courier Times

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This story was originally published October 8, 2026 at 11:27 AM.