3 Middletown BOE Members Vote No On Budget That Would Close Schools

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Three board members, Joe Fitzgerald, Mark Soporowski and Caterina Skalaski, voted against the tentative 2025-'26 Middletown schools budget, which brings with it a controversial proposal to close three schools in the district.

The proposal would seek to close Leonardo and Navesink elementaries, and move those students into a new "Bayshore Elementary," the former Bayshore Middle School. Under the proposal, Bayshore Middle School will cease operating as a middle school, and students there currently will go to either Thorne or Thompson, with the majority going to Thorne. Here is the budget PDF slide presentation from the district.

The district has until April 30 to present a finalized budget to the state. From now until April 30, Middletown will hold a series of public meetings to try and create a budget without closing schools. The dates of those meetings have not yet been released.

Here is how the Board voted on the budget, which includes closing schools:

• Leonora Caminiti - yes
• Joe Fitzgerald - no, to claps from the crowd
• Joan Minnuies - yes, to boos from the crowd. "We're going to look for another plan (an alternative to closing schools)," she said to the crowd. "We need a budget."
• Mark Soporowski - no, to audience claps
• Jacqueline Tobacco - yes
• Deb Wright - yes
• Frank Capone - yes
• Gary Tulp - yes
• Caterina Skalaski - no

The Middletown school district is in a $10-15 million budget hole, board president Frank Capone said Wednesday after the meeting. He is in favor of closing/consolidating the schools.

This is partly because the district has seen steep reductions in state aid in the past 15 years. In 2009, the Middletown school district received $20.9 million in state aid from Trenton. Had the state aid continued on that trajectory, and factoring for inflation, Capone said Middletown would have received "$60 or $70 million today" (number not confirmed by the NJ Department of Education).

Instead, this year the district received $13.9 million in state aid. The Middletown school budget for '25-'26 is $200 million, about $14 million of which is state aid.

"That's disgusting," said Capone. He also said he's lobbied elected officials to get Middletown more money.

"I lobbied every senator, Democrat and Republican, for more money. " he said. "We have a $200-million budget, of which we're allocated $14 million from the state. That is disgusting. We didn't do this to any of your children. The state did this to your children."

Minnuies confirmed publicly in Tuesday night's meeting that Capone has lobbied to get more funding.

This year, Middletown schools did receive six percent more in state aid, which Capone said is thanks in part to his lobbying efforts. It resulted in about $839,000 more for the district.

"But when you're getting six percent of nothing, it's six percent of nothing," he said.

If the district does not close the three schools, it will have to lay off about 120 staff members by June, said Superintendent Jessica Alfone.

Capone also stressed this is not the first year the Middletown school district has been in difficult financial straits. Usually, the district is able to cover budget deficits of a few million each year, he said.

"We've been in a bad financial situation since before I became a board member. But this is the first year we've had a gap this large," he said. "If I did not get this district to turn to self insurance a few years ago, it would be worse. That saved us millions. But we're at the point now where if we just keep plugging a hole for this year, we're going to have the same problem next year again. If we don't take action that's meaningful for the whole district, this is just going to continue."

And:

"Any Board member trying to politically grandstand they were unaware of our financial problems is either not paying attention or is misleading the public," he said, referring to Fitzgerald saying Tuesday night: "This is the first time I'm hearing we are in financial danger. I don't understand how we're in this dire situation."

Is the Middletown school district top heavy with administrators, as Fitzgerald and others say?

"We have one superintendent in Middletown," said Capone. "We have two assistant superintendents that take care of almost 9,000 students. And administrators are on that list of 120 people to slice (if they can't close schools). Is saving a $200,000 salary going to save us money? When we have millions of dollars worth of problems?"

"There is enough time between now and our final budget to see what we can come up with, and see if we can strip it again," said Capone, referring to the budget, which, again, is due April 30. "I'm a dad, too and I have five kids. The last thing I ever want to do is close a school ... If there is a way to figure this out in the next month, 30 days whatever we have, we are gonna do our best to try and figure that out. I encourage everyone to come to our forums."

Minnuies said Tuesday night she "would like to see plans B or C where there's no closing of schools."

Soporowski accused the Board of having "no transparency" in presenting the idea to close the schools. He was one of the "no" votes.

"I have to be an investigator to find anything out," he said. "There is no transparency. That's how I feel. And I'm on the board."

To which Board member Jacqueline Tobacco responded that the "entire board" was informed of this "a month ago."

Closing the two elementary schools will have a recurring savings of approximately $4 million dollars each year, and eliminates the estimated $30-million renovation costs estimated for Leonardo and Navesink, which are both old buildings, said the district in the PDF slide presentation.

The district could also sell the Leonardo property to generate revenue; the Navesink school building is not owned by the school board; it is owned by a trust from Navesink Library (The Duryea Navesink Library Association).

Middletown Parents Fervently Protest Idea To Close 3 Schools (Tuesday night)

Just Close Schools, Murphy Says To Toms River, Districts With Aid Cuts (March 2024)

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