What To Expect At Middletown BOE's Special Voting Meeting Tuesday

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Here's a reminder that the Middletown Board of Education will hold a special voting meeting Tuesday night. Here is the agenda.

The meeting will be held at the High School North auditorium (63 Tindall Road), and it will begin at 7 p.m., but immediately go into executive private session. It will then reopen to the public at 7:30, if not earlier.

The meeting will be livestreamed on the district's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MTBOE...

Tuesday night's meeting will ask the board to take a vote on raising Middletown school property taxes, for a total 5.88 percent school property tax increase.

It remains unknown how the Board will vote tonight, or even if they will get a majority vote to pass the proposed tax increase.

On Friday, Board member Mark Soporowki posted on his Facebook page that he would be voting against this proposal from Mayor Tony Perry last week for the school district to sell a 10-acre lot of land off Sleepy Hollow Road to the Township for $1.9 million. That will result in a one-time cash infusion to help the district prevent closing three schools this year, which it had previously proposed, and which resulted in much outcry from parents.

"Here’s where I stand for the sake of transparency. I am NOT for closing schools. I am NOT for selling land. Period," Soporowski wrote Friday on Facebook.

He called the proposal put forth by Perry "a backroom deal was cooked up and shoved down our throats."

"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," said Soporowski.

Perry declined to respond Tuesday afternoon to Soporowski's remarks.

Here's a breakdown of the latest plan to create a balanced Middletown school budget for the 2025-'26 school year:

- There will likely be a 5.88 percent increase to the school property tax levy.

- There will be some staffing layoffs in Middletown schools this spring. No teaching positions will be eliminated, but there will be "reductions to administrative and duplicate roles." Expect a "moderate level of staffing reductions," said superintendent Jessica Alfone. The layoffs will not impact classroom teachers, or increase class sizes, she said.

- Middletown Township will purchase a 10-acre parcel of land, owned by the school district, on Kings Highway at Sleepy Hollow Road, Perry announced last Thursday. The Township will pay the school district approximately $1.9 million for the lot. The Township will buy the land using tax dollars from the Open Space Trust Fund, and the lot will be preserved as wooded open space.

- The Township and school district will now equally split the cost of having armed, Class-three police officers in Middletown schools. This came out of a shared services meeting between Perry, Board President Frank Capone and Board vice president Jacqueline Tobacco; Capone and Tobacco are on the shared services committee with the Township. Currently, the school district entirely pays to have the officers, but under this new proposal, the Township will pay for half. It is about $1.2 million a year to have the Class-3, armed police officers in schools, so the school district will save approx. $600,000 in next year's budget.

In his Facebook post, Soporowski also said the Township should pay the entire cost of having the armed Class-3 officers in schools.

"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?" he wrote.

Perry again declined to respond.

Stay tuned to Tuesday night.

Last week: Here's A Breakdown Of Middletown's New Plan To Keep Schools Open

Middletown Mayor Tony Perry Proposes New Idea To Save Schools