Lack Of Money, Aging Schools: 1st Middletown Strategic Planning Meeting

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Thursday night was the first meeting where the Middletown school district began public discussions about its five-year strategic plan.

This is where the school district will hear from the entire community about where they would like the direction of Middletown schools to go in the next five years.

One possible outcome of this strategic planning process may include closing a school, or several. Another outcome is redistricting. Neither of these are definitely going to happen.

"These three meetings are to gather community input about the district's new five-year strategic plan," said superintendent Jessica Alfone. "School closing and redistricting are not absolutes as outcomes of the eventual plan. Closing schools and/or rezoning could be outcomes, but we need to engage in the process first before making any determinations for the future."

Strategic planning meetings are not usually recorded, said a spokeswoman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, which is running the three series of meetings. This is so people can speak freely, and in small groups. These are not considered "official" school board meetings.

However, Alfone started off Thursday night's meeting by giving an overview of the Middletown school district, which you can watch here or below. Alfone's presentation was recorded for the public:

Middletown has 8,791 students in grades PreK to 12 and is the largest district in Monmouth County, and one of the largest in the state of New Jersey. Middletown has as 16 schools total: 11 elementary schools, three middle schools and the two high schools.

The Middletown school board just approved a 10.1 percent increase to the school tax levy. Next year, the district will only be able to raise the school tax levy two percent, which is a state cap on how much districts can raise school taxes.

However, all collective bargaining agreements have staff salary increases above two percent next year, and staff salaries make up 90 percent of the district's budget, said Alfone. And health insurance premiums, transportation costs and utilities will all increase above two percent next year.

"Eventually that's going to outpace what you can raise in revenue," she said. "We have a budget, and we have a lot of uncontrollables that are going to outpace that two percent over time. So that's a challenge for us."

She also said the Middletown school district needs to replenish money in its capital reserves that it's already spent.

"We've used that fund balance to help support our budget. We are at the end of that rope," said Alfone Thursday night.

Middletown has aging schools

"Another challenge for us is our facilities ... I think it's important to note that we do have aging infrastructure," she continued. "Our oldest school is River Plaza (elementary), which is over 100 years old." (High School South is the newest school in the district, at 51 years old.)

There have been no significant updates made to any of Middletown's 11 elementary schools.

"HVAC work is a necessity across the district. That is 100 percent a fact," said the superintendent. "Not so much the rooftop units, but the actual units in the classroom. There are a lot of them at the end of their life, difficult to get parts for. When there are rooms that don't have heat in the winter, it's not because we are ignoring the program, it's because it takes a really long time to source the parts. Because they're that old. That's definitely something we're gonna have to face moving forward."

"While facing these financial challenges, we are also facing an aging infrastructure that needs to be addressed," she said.

In January, Patch reported that there was no heat in the 300-wing classrooms at Thorne Middle School, which, again, was because it took a very long time for the replacement parts to arrive for old heating units. Teachers initially told students to bring blankets to class, but students were then relocated to warmer classrooms.

Middletown school district is paying an outside consultant $24,000 to conduct a facility/boundary analysis, "for us to utilize as data in the planning process," said Alfone Friday.

"This data will help inform decision making within the new strategic plan alongside the community input from the sessions and the surveys conducted earlier in the year. Additionally, we have a strategic planning steering committee that will be looking at all of this information, in total, to make recommendations for the future of the district," she said.

First, the consulting firm will assess all the buildings in the district; that facilities assessment will take place during the month of June.

They will then present a report in mid- to late September about "how our boundaries could be redesigned" and any Middletown school buildings "that are aging and could be taken offline," said Alfone.

Next meeting dates:

• Monday, June 16 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Middletown High School North
• Thursday, August 28 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Middletown High School North

3 Public Meeting Dates Announced As Middletown Schools Begin Strategic Planning (May 2025)

Middletown School Board Approves Budget With 10.1 Percent School Tax Increase (April 30, 2025)

No Heat In Several Classrooms At Thorne Middle School, Parents Say (January 2025)