West Orange School Budget With Staff Cuts, Tax Hike Gets A Green Light

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Board of Education unanimously approved the district’s 2025-2026 budget at their meeting last week. It will come with a 2.3 percent tax levy increase for homeowners – and dozens of staff cuts.

Superintendent Hayden Moore and the board’s business administrator, Tonya Flowers, released more details about the district’s new spending plan at the May 5 meeting. Watch video footage here, and see the budget presentation here.

As per the district auditor, the estimated tax impact for homeowners with a property assessed at $615,472 will come to $10,138 – an increase of $246 from last year.

The tax hike will help the district to cope with a shortfall that came to about $9 million. The budget gap was the result of rising costs and stagnating revenues, according to figures presented at last week’s meeting.

Another big piece of the puzzle? Staff cuts across the district.

According to administrators, 57 total positions were “reduced” in next year’s budget. That includes 15 staffers who were not replaced due to retirement or resignation, and four non-renewals who were not replaced.

Administrators said 21 of the 38 remaining positions were offered existing vacancies within the district.

Moore said that all staff reductions were approached strategically, with careful consideration about the impact on classroom instruction.

“This task was not taken lightly and was approached with great empathy,” Moore said.

Article continues below

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS

“Over the past four years, including the current and proposed school years, district expenditures have increased by approximately $45 million,” administrators explained in their budget presentation.

Several factors are contributing to the deficit, administrators said:

• Contractual salary increases have averaged 3% to 3.5% annually, for five years this equates to $19.5 million (or 21%)
• Health benefit costs are projected to increase by 10% for the 2025–2026 school year. Over five years this is $9 million (or 35%)
• Transportation contract renewals are increasing by 3.7%, consistent with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Over five years this equates to $8.6 million (or a 99% increase)
• Out-of-district special education tuition costs have increased by 5 to 6%, with the average annual cost per student (including transportation) totaling approximately $125,000. Over five years, this equates to $2.8 million (or 28%)

Meanwhile, the district’s revenues only increased by $38 million over the same period, school officials reported.

Aside from staff cuts, other cost-cutting measures will include a realignment of the district's middle schools. Read More: West Orange Middle Schools Will Look Different Under Realignment Plan

District administrators noted that the rising expenses are part of statewide trends and mandatory obligations, making it harder to cut costs without impacting essential services.

Board president Brian Rock said that this year’s budget crunch highlights the constraints that the district faces – and which are limiting the effort to find outside-the-box solutions to the problem.

“Some of the creative solutions to budgets require a wealthy district and wealthy parents throughout the entire district to essentially pay to subsidize their children's public education – and that's not a luxury that we have here,” Rock said.

• See Related: West Orange School Budget Cuts Have Teachers, Parents Worried
• See Related: Here Are The Latest Enrollment Totals For West Orange Schools

PUBLIC COMMENT

Several residents spoke about the budget during the public comment portion of Monday’s meeting. Watch footage below (video is cued to public comment).

PROPERTY TAXES IN WEST ORANGE

Property taxes in New Jersey are mainly made up of three parts: school, municipal and county.

Here’s how that played out in West Orange for 2024, according to state data (percentages rounded up):

• School – 61.8%
• Municipal – 26.8%
• County – 11.4%

In 2024, the average West Orange resident paid $15,778 in property taxes on a home valued at $336,878 (not including credits and deductions).

>> Read More: Here's How Much West Orange Homeowners Pay In Taxes (2025 Update)

Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Learn more about advertising on Patch here. Find out how to post announcements or events to your local Patch site. Don’t forget to visit the Patch West Orange Facebook page.