Middletown BOE Will Vote On Budget That Raises Taxes 10.09 Percent

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — On Wednesday night the Middletown school board will take a vote to submit its final 2025-'26 school year budget to the state for approval.

The public can read the proposed budget here: https://go.boarddocs.com/nj/mi..., under "Adoption of the Final 2025-2026 School Year Budget and Tax Levy."

The final budget that will be introduced Wednesday night will increase Middletown's school tax levy 10.09 percent: The budget calls for Middletown homeowners to pay a total of $176,634,681 in school taxes next year, a 10.09 percent increase from the current school tax levy of $160,435,093.

The public will be able to comment Wednesday night. The meeting will be at Middletown High School North; the public portion of the meeting will begin at approximately 7:30 p.m.

At their last meeting April 7, a majority of the board, seven members, rejected this proposal from Middletown Mayor Tony Perry that would have raised school taxes 5.88 percent. All seven instead voted to increase the school tax levy as high as 10.1 percent.

Multiple Board members said they felt excluded from how Perry's plan was concocted.

That plan was developed as a way to prevent the proposed closure of three Middletown schools — Leonardo and Navesink elementaries, and Bayshore Middle School — to close a $9.8-million budget hole. The town also would have paid half the cost of armed police officers in Middletown schools, and the district agreed to sell a 10-acre lot off Sleepy Hollow Road to the Township for $1.9 million. There also would have been some administrative staff layoffs.

None of that will happen now. The budget introduced Wednesday night will keep all schools open, but the land will not be sold and the Middletown school district will have to continue paying for the armed police officers on its own. There will still be some administrative layoffs, superintendent Jessica Alfone clarified, and the district was able to reduce its expenses by $6 million.

It was Board member Joe Fitzgerald who first suggested at the April 7 meeting that the Board increase the school tax levy up to 10.1 percent.

"The 5.88-percent increase puts us right back where we are now. It prolongs us. It does not give us a strategic plan," said Fitzgerald at the time. "The 5.88 gets us to next year and it just gets worse and worse from there ... I don't like raising taxes, but this is the future for our kids."

Fitzgerald said Tuesday:

"I can’t speak for the entire board but it’s not as simple as 'will we raise the tax levy.' At this point, I think we have ran out of options. The NJDOE has already rejected our tentative budget and we can’t lose our district to the state. A lot of us have fought hard against all the state's nonsense and overreach. If we reject the budget and don’t use the levy to the fullest extent, the state will step in. If this happens, the state will enforced the 10.1 percent tax raise, force scripted lessons, enforce massive cuts and school shutdowns. At least if we do it, then it’s on our terms."

"We have lost $19 million in funding since 2020. You compound this with the flawed state funding formula, gas/utility prices, inflation, cost of living and you can see how we got into this mess," Fitzgerald continued. "We started the '24/'25 school year five million in the hole and in '25/'26 we were looking at a 10 million deficit. If you trend this forward our '26/'27 budget hits a deficit of 15 million. A 10.1 percent school tax levy gives our district $16.5 million in additional funding year over year. I personally have already seen budget cuts of around $6 million for the next coming year along with movement on a strategic plan. At the end of the day, and in all the options brought forward, taxes were being raised. This is the only option that doesn’t waste taxpayer dollars and sets our district up for decades to come."

Board members Frank Capone and Jacqueline Tobacco both said they will be voting "no" Wednesday night, because of the 10.09 percent tax increase.

"I am standing with our taxpayers," said Tobacco Wednesday. "I cannot support a budget that imposes a 10.1 percent tax hike — 500 percent above previous increases — that provides no increase in educational benefits and merely delays the inevitable school closures."

"This budget neglects any consolidation measures," Capone said. "As a result we will likely find ourselves grappling with these same issues next year regarding potential (school) closures and consolidations. I would encourage all taxpayers to attend Wednesday night's meeting. This is irresponsible spending. This budget is a big Band Aid, that's all it is. It's a temporary solution."

"What's upsetting to me is we had two board members who sat on this Board for 25 years and said 'no' to two-percent tax increase every year, and now all of a sudden they're good with 10.1 percent," he said. "All they're doing is hurting the taxpayers of Middletown."

He said saying he was referring to Board members Joan Minnuies and Leonore Caminiti, who did not immediately respond to his criticism.

According to Tobacco, the Middletown school district already hired an outside strategic planning firm, at a cost of $24,000. The district will pay that strategic planning firm to tell the district how to solve the $9.8-million budget hole.

Closing schools in the future is imminent in Middletown, warned Capone.

"The strategic planning firm — I think this is what, the fourth we've hired in the past 10 years? — is going to tell us to close schools," he said Wednesday. "The facts are the facts. We have declining birthrates nationwide, we have declining enrollment."

Capone said the 5.88-percent proposal was developed in a Shared Services committee meeting between himself, Tobacco, Perry, Rick Hibell, superintendent Jessica Alfone and business administrator Amy Doherty and Middletown administrator Tony Mercantante.

"All these board members saying it's a backroom deal is a false narrative and a grossly political storyline," he said. "Every deal with the town is made in Shared Services and this deal was made in Shared Services to save the district money."

One of the Board members who voted against Perry's proposal, Mark Soporowski, continues to ask the Township to pay the full cost of the armed Class-3 officers in schools.

"Here’s where I stand for the sake of transparency. I am NOT for closing schools. I am NOT for selling land. Period," he said April 4 on his Facebook page. "For the past couple weeks, it seemed like board members were having smart, productive conversations with administration about how to fix this year’s budget AND secure our future. Then—in one foul swoop—a backroom deal was cooked up and shoved down our throats with a press conference and cameras. ZERO collaboration. TOTAL disrespect to the process. And here’s the real question for Mayor Tony Perry: Why won’t you fund the Class III officers without demanding school property in return?"

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From the April 7 meeting: Middletown School Board Votes To Raise Taxes Up To 10.1 Percent

Middletown Schools Will Begin Strategic Planning Process In May (April 8)