By Stephen Appezzato
MIDDLETOWN – Facing a $10 million budget gap for the upcoming school year, the Middletown Township Board of Education approved a tentative 2025-2026 school budget that may require the closing of three schools.
In a 6-3 vote at the March 18 meeting, the board approved a projected $197 million budget. But the budget may come at an unpopular cost – the district may need to close Bayshore Middle School, sending students to both Thorne and Thompson middle schools. The Leonardo and Navesink elementary schools would also be closed, with those students moving to a new Bayshore Elementary School in the former middle school’s existing building.
Hundreds of residents attended the school board meeting, eager to voice their opposition to this “Middletown Reimagined” plan they said they felt “blindsided” by. The majority could not make it inside the meeting chamber due to capacity. Parents and school officials have until the end of April to weigh in on the proposed plan before the final budget and the accompanying changes are adopted.
The Financial Situation
Jessica Alfone, superintendent of Middletown Schools, presented the tentative budget to the board of education, which highlighted a stark budget gap for the coming school year.
“The goals of this budget have been as challenging as they have ever been,” Alfone said. “When we looked at this budget this year, we knew there was going to be certainly an uphill climb, because year over the year the challenges become greater and greater.”
According to Alfone, the district has lost significant state aid over the years. The district is poised to receive $7 million less than it did in 2009, which compounded equates to over $60 million, she said.
“We have lost state aid significantly over the course of the last 10 years,” Alfone said. “When the state talks about fully funding anything – and I’ll show you some eye-opening information – is that they fully fund nothing. They do not even come close to funding what they consider is the dollar amount to educate a single pupil in our district.”
The district received 6% more in state funding for the upcoming school year. But Alfone said the district’s proposed 2025-2026 $197 million budget must address inflation, salary and benefits increases, transportation fees, server upgrades and rising insurance costs, among other increases.
The state’s weighted average for adequate funding per pupil in Middletown each year is around $15,000 – far below the $21,000 the district currently pays per pupil, Alfone said. Using “every ounce of available revenue that we have,” she said, the district can only raise around $186 million toward the budget.
“Our basic operating costs at this point outpace our ability to raise revenue,” she said.
Since 2010, enrollment in the district has declined from about 10,000 students to 8,500, but the district is “still operating at a capacity and a footprint meant for over 10,000 kids,” Alfone explained. According to projections, the district expects “little population growth in the next 10 years.”
Additionally, the average age of school buildings in Middletown is 76 years, meaning the district is facing a long list of costly repairs and upgrades.
“The bottom line is there are a significant number of our buildings, particularly at the elementary level, that need a tremendous amount of repair. We are at the point in time where we have to determine, is it worth it to rehab buildings? What kind of construction projects are we going to undertake potentially in the future?” Alfone said.
School Closures, Redistricting and More
To address the financial situation, Alfone presented a plan to shrink the district’s footprint by closing schools and redistributing students.
If adopted at the end of April, the Middletown Reimagined concept would create $4 million in cost savings each year and eliminate millions in projected renovation costs for the closed buildings. Sending zones for Middletown North and South high schools would also be reworked, and students currently in fifth, sixth and seventh grades whose high school trajectory changes would have an option to go to their originally zoned school, Alfone said.
In the future, the district could also evaluate further consolidation and building closures.
Facing a concerned crowd of parents, Alfone said the alternative to Middletown Reimagined would be severe staff and programming reductions across the district and increased class sizes, among other cuts.
A Concerned School Community
Many at the meeting, including board members, residents and students, voiced their concerns and oppositions to Middletown Reimagined and said they felt blindsided by the proposed changes.
“As a board member and as a parent, this hurts me, extremely. I’ve been on this board for two years and this is the first time I’m hearing we’re in any financial danger,” said school board member Joseph Fitzgerald. “I don’t understand how we’re in this dire situation. I know S2 (school funding legislation) was an issue,” as well as state funding and the bank cap, but “I really can’t fathom that we’re figuring this out now” and not years ago, he said.
Board member Joan Minnuies said she was “not happy about how this came down.”
“We have to come up with the budget because we need to operate, our kids need to learn. This might not be the best budget. I am hoping that with these meetings we can get some input from the parents,” she said.
According to Alfone, if the board cannot agree on the final budget, state education officials will step in.
Board member Deborah Wright faulted past boards for refusing “to tackle strategic planning in a real and meaningful way.”
“I’m hoping that we can come up with a solution to keep our community together, because as I’ve said to Mr. Capone and Dr. Alfone, I feel like the whole north side of town just got dissected,” Minnuies said.
After some of the school board members voiced their concerns, members of the public were given a 30-minute timeslot to speak out ahead of the vote to approve the tentative budget.
“Bayshore makes me feel safe and at home. The teachers do amazing things for us,” said one seventh-grade student. “If you take away this from us, and bring us to a different school this will affect our friendships and learning.”
“Don’t take my school away,” she said.
Many also expressed concern over school leadership’s communication with the public.
“There’s a major lack of communication going on here,” said one Navesink parent. “You are lacking in communication amongst your board and to come here in a professional meeting like this where you’re going to vote on a budget for a school district as large as Middletown and these people didn’t know about it, and it seemed to me that you scrambled when we all found out that this was happening today,” she said. “I would really ask that you don’t reimagine our town for us.”
Another parent questioned how the district realistically expects to relocate so many students in such a short timeframe.
“A lot of things look really good on paper, but when you add people and logistics, it does not work. I have seen nothing but a broad plan to show that this works,” she said.
“Ultimately this comes down to you guys (the board), your transparency, your lack of leadership, your lack of strategic planning and your lack of ability to communicate to us that changes need to occur and they should occur over time,” another Navesink parent said.
Following the public comment period, the board of education voted 6-3 to approve the tentative 2025-2026 budget. Voting “no” were members Caterina Skalaski, Mark Soporowski and Joseph Fitzgerald.
School leaders were adamant that the decision did not sign off on the discussed school closures, and that further public information and input sessions will take place among parents of all schools ahead of a final budget decision in late April. At that time, the future of the Navesink, Leonardo and Bayshore schools will be decided.
The full budget presentation is available online at middletownk12.org.
The article originally appeared in the March 20 – March 26, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
