It's Not Just 3 Schools: Middletown Seeks To Close More In Future

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Middletown parents launched an online petition to protest the proposed closure of three Middletown schools. The school district wants to close Leonardo and Navesink elementary schools, and move those students into a new "Bayshore Elementary," the former Bayshore Middle School.

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.

However, it doesn't end there. As part of its 2025-'26 budget presentation the district proposes closing one or even two more schools in the future.

The district has not revealed yet which school — or schools — it is eyeing to close.

"During the 2025 -2026 school year, examine the remaining elementary school footprint to further consolidate to an 8-school elementary model," it reads on slide 25. "Two high schools, two middle schools and eight elementary schools."

Middletown school district currently has 11 elementary schools, three middle schools and the two high schools; it had 12 elementary schools before the district closed Port Monmouth in 2020. Superintendent Jessica Alfone wants to reduce it to eight elementaries.

The district will then make classrooms, gyms and cafeterias in the remaining eight schools bigger, and modernize the schools inside and out, she said.

"We are at a critical juncture as a district," said Alfone in the budget presentation. "Our basic operating costs outpace our ability to generate revenue."

Operating costs that continue to rise in Middletown schools include:

• Health insurance for teachers
• Facilities maintenance, including much-needed HVAC repairs (some Thorne classrooms had poor heat this winter, and it took a long time to order parts due to how old the HVAC system is)
• Window and bathroom replacements
• Parking lot repaving
• Elementary kitchen/cafeteria upgrades
• School security upgrades

The student enrollment of Middletown schools is about 8,500 students, a drop from 10,000 in 2009. Student enrollment in Middletown is not projected to substantially increase.

For comparison, Brick Twp. school district has about 8,400 students. Brick has six elementary schools, two middle schools and two high schools. Toms River, a much larger school district, currently has about 14,100 students, and three high schools, three middle and 12 elementaries.

The district says the closure of the schools is necessary due to a $10 million budget gap the district is currently facing. For years now, the Middletown school district, like many large suburban districts in the state, has experienced cuts in state aid from Trenton. In 2009, the Middletown school district received $20.9 million in state aid from Trenton. This year, it dropped to $13.9 million. (Separately, it was just reported today that Toms River schools are dealing with their own $22 million budget deficit, also due to state aid cuts.)

School board president Frank Capone, who strongly backs the plan to close and consolidate schools, said he has tried to "plug" the holes in the budget every year since he was first elected to the Board five years ago.

"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," said Capone Wednesday. "If we don't take action that's meaningful for the whole district, this is just going to continue."

State Sen. Declan O'Scanlon (R) said it all comes back to what he said is an "unfair" school funding formula from Gov. Phil Murphy.

"We have smaller districts in the Bayshore that are very close to turning the lights off because of the school funding formula," said O'Scanlon Thursday. "Middletown is a victim."

Also, just Thursday Assemblywoman Victoria Flynn and Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger said they are requesting a meeting with Gov. Phil Murphy (he coincidentally lives in Middletown) and NJ Education Department Commissioner Kevin Dehmer to see if they can get more emergency funding for Middletown public schools. Flynn and Scharfenberger, both Republicans, sent this letter to the governor.

“The state needs to lift more weight. We would greatly appreciate the chance to meet with you to discuss potential solutions. We have reached a boiling point,” Flynn and Scharfenberger said to the governor.

Multiple superintendents before Alfone suggested re-districting in Middletown schools

The Middletown school district has publicly discussed redistricting (the term for closing/consolidating schools) multiple times before. Alfone is not the first Middletown superintendent to propose this idea. In fact, she is the third.

In 2017, then-superintendent Dr. Bill George proposed redistricting. But the school board at the time unanimously rejected the idea, with every single board member voting against it.

Then, in 2020, redistricting was again brought up under superintendent Mary Ellen Walker, and the district paid $48,000 to Milone & MacBroom planning firm to study enrollment trends in the district. The firm showed that district-wide K-12 enrollment was trending down.

At the time, then-Board of Education President Pam Rogers told Patch in this article "everything is on the table," which included possibly closing down more schools. Like Capone today, she cited state aid reductions as the number-one reason why school closures were necessary in Middletown.

"We have an overcrowding issue in the district, such as at Thompson and High School South, whereas other schools have room for 100 students. None of these decisions are easy since we lost that state funding," Rogers said in 2020.

She said this in September, after the board she led closed Port Monmouth Elementary that March.

Deb Wright is one of the members who's been on the Middletown school board the longest. She supports the school closures. She said Tuesday night:

"It was never a question of if we would hit the fiscal cliff. It was a question of when."

Middletown residents say school closures were hid from them

There are multiple reasons Middletown parents disagree with the school closures.

"Bayshore was built to serve middle school students, and its infrastructure does not align with the needs of younger children," said Theresa Dowd, a Leonardo parent, in a letter to the school board.

Other parents say they are worried about increased class size, busing and also uprooting their children from their teachers and friends.

What may anger Middletown residents the most, however, is that they were left in the dark about proposed closures.

The school board was presented with the proposal about a month ago, in a private board meeting. It was first announced to the public Tuesday afternoon, first in a parent letter, and then during Tuesday night's board meeting. That meeting was attended by hundred, including many people who were locked out of the very room where the meeting was held due to space restrictions.

"We demand a moratorium on all school closures and rezoning efforts until the community has been fully engaged in the decision-making process," read the petition. It called for "community-led budget solutions."

At that meeting, many parents asked the Board to involve them in solving the budget deficit.

"We request that the Board of Education extend the budget deadline to allow the community, parents, and local leaders to propose alternative budget solutions that do not involve shutting down schools," read the petition. "We demand publicly accessible, well-advertised community meetings where parents, students, and taxpayers can voice their concerns and present solutions. The Board must disclose all financial data that led to this decision and allow independent budget analysts to review alternative paths forward ... Middletown residents deserve a say in how OUR tax dollars are spent. The Board of Education works for US, not the other way around."

Middletown will hold a series of public forums from now until April 30 to come up with a budget plan that allows the three schools to remain open, the district said. Alfone said the alternative is laying off 120 staff members, including assistant superintendents (there are two), and cutting programs such as elementary school band.

Middletown School District Considering Redistricting (2020)

Middletown Board Of Ed. Kills Redistricting Idea (2017)

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