14 Staff Positions To Be Cut In Parsippany-Troy Hills School Budget

PARSIPPANY, NJ — The Parsippany-Troy Hills Board of Education approved a tentative budget proposing 14 cuts to staff positions for the 2025-2026 school year on Thursday.

Board members and attendees discussed the impact of staffing decisions and budget constraints on educational programming and staff positions, including concerns about rising costs.

In particular, a 21 percent increase is attributed to charter schools, which are not bound by the same funding caps as traditional schools.

"We've heard from the township during all these PILOT agreements [that] the school district gets every penny that we ask for," a board member said in the meeting, "which I agree with, however, we are obviously very limited in the dollars we can ask for, and those dollars do not cover - they cover just barely the health increase, let alone the increase in everything else."

"Nobody wants increased taxes," the board member added, "that's never an easy decision either."

The administration proposed using the below sources of revenue to help balance the budget:

1. Health Care Cost Adjustment of $270,276.
2. Athletic participation fees to assist with transportation costs: $50 for high school, and $25 for middle school.
3. Field trip transportation fees.
4. A high school student parking permit fee of $25.
5. Student activity fees of $25 for high school and middle school.

The budget includes an anticipated revenue for the upcoming school year of $25,644,350, which will come from state aid and local revenues. The amount estimated to be raised through taxes is $161,985,350.

The average home property in Parsippany valued at $314,365 will pay $6,859.42 in 2025, which is a tax rate increase of $163.43.

The board is proposing budget cuts by eliminating the following positions:

• Two administrative positions
• Four teaching positions
• One nursing position
• Four custodial positions
• Three secretarial positions

"We made what we think it is the best of the worst decisions that we could make," said Superintendent Robert Sutter. "And it's just unfortunate but we cannot continue down this path with a 2 percent tax levy. It's just not sustainable"

The next step before the budget hearing scheduled for April 24 will be to submit the proposed budget to the Executive County Superintendent for approval.

The April 24 budget meeting will be held at Parsippany Hills High School, at 20 Rita Drive, Morris Plains.