Montclair School Board OKs Special Election For Taxpayer Bailout

MONTCLAIR, NJ — A potential bailout for Montclair’s embattled public school district will be placed in the hands of local voters this December, but they’ll have to greenlight a property tax increase if they want to make it a reality.

Superintendent Ruth Turner and interim school business administrator Dana Sullivan previously said they inherited the tricky financial situation after taking over their jobs on July 1.

The Montclair Public School District is facing a looming budget gap that has now swelled to $19.6 million. The shortfall is spread between two separate budgets: the 2024-2025 budget contains a deficit of $12.6 million, and the 2025-2026 budget has a deficit of $7 million.

The superintendent said that a state official hasn’t found evidence of fraud. “It is really incompetence, bad accounting and administration’s inability to say no,” Turner told The Montclair Pod.

The Montclair Board of Education unanimously approved the creation of a public referendum at their meeting on Tuesday. It will be put before voters in a special election on Dec. 9.

The board has authorized two public questions for Montclair voters.

The first question would raise an additional $12.6 million from local taxpayers for the 2024-2025 school year. Approval of these extra taxes would result in a one-time increase to the district’s tax levy – estimated at $1,117 for an average Montclair home assessed at $639,000, Montclair Local reported.

The second question would raise an additional $7.6 million for the 2025-2026 school year, which would result in a permanent increase to the district’s tax levy of $621 for the average homeowners. It would pay for items such as:

• “Maintaining teachers and instructional assistants to avoid increased class sizes and program elimination”
• “Maintain security in schools”
• “Maintain facilities”
• “Maintain courtesy busing and protect the magnet school system”
• “Maintain curricular, athletics, and extracurricular activities that threaten to be eliminated”
• “Conduct a forensic audit of the 2024-2025 financial records and update the accounting software”

The Montclair Public School District will have to accept a state loan if the board doesn't approve a referendum, or local voters reject it.

According to the superintendent, state aid would only cover the 2024-2025 school year – which would still leave the district on the hook for $7 million worth of cuts in the current spending plan.

A loan would also come with a state financial monitor – a fate that other Essex County school districts have also encountered over the past decade.

• See Related: NJ Appoints State Monitor In Nutley Schools Amid Financial Woes
• See Related: State Monitor Removed From Belleville Schools, Officials Cheer

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