By Barbara A. Preston | Posted March 19, 2025
During a nearly five-hour marathon meeting of the Montgomery Township School Board, there were unhappy faces all around. Board members frowned, and a large crowd of teachers and administrators grimaced on Tuesday, March 18, as the school board approved a 2025-26 tentative budget.
The budget calls for a 2% increase in spending, while employee health benefits have increased 6.7% and state aid will decrease by 3%.
Dozens of Montgomery Township Education Association (MTEA) members wore red t-shirts to show their unity. Their president told the school board that at least 10 educators would have to be laid off, and quality will suffer if this budget is adopted.
Montgomery Township Education Association (MTEA) in red and Principals and Supervisors of Montgomery Township (APSMT) in gray, applaud a request to fully fund the 2025-26 school budget.
Business Administrator Andrew Italiano said the school district could use a “health care waiver” to help cover inflated health care costs for employees. With the waiver, Montgomery is legally allowed to raise school taxes by 2.8%.
This is something the school board and school administrators will have to consider. The school district can change the budget until April 29, which will be the date of the public hearing and final adoption of the budget.
As it looks now, a Montgomery Township resident with a home valued at $800,000 would pay $18,539.98 in school property taxes for 2025-26. This would represent an increase of $16.64 over the current year.
Rocky Hill school taxes would actually go down. A home valued at $800,000 in Rocky Hill would pay $10,085.18 in school taxes. This would represent a decrease of $46.69 from last year. (In comparison to Montgomery, Rocky Hill has about 250 households and pays for the number of students who attend the school district in proportion to its total population).
If the school board decides to use the waiver, it would add between $150 to $187 per household in annual property taxes for an average Montgomery home valued at $849,000. It would cost the average Rocky Hill homeowner an extra $85 to $106 a year for an average home valued at $717,000.
A Montgomery home for sale for $1.8 million. The owner of this home would pay $41,714.96 in school taxes, according to the tentative budget adopted by the Montgomery School Board.
School funding has long been a contentious issue in New Jersey, where property owners pay the bulk. In Montgomery Township and Rocky Hill, taxpayers pick up 83.5% of the cost. State aid adds about 8.9%, and the remainder includes grants, and reserves.
A consideration, in addition to the burden on local property owners, is that Montgomery Township offers an “above average product” when it comes to education, Business Administrator Italiano said.
“Classroom sizes are very small here on your teacher-to-student ratio. That might change, slightly,” Italiano said. With the proposed budget, ”there’s going to be some adjustments. Mostly, the things we are known for are: Great academics, great music, athletics, extracurriculars. Those are intact. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Board member Michelle Dowling expressed that she wants to better understand the ramifications of the proposed budget. “In addition to the position reductions and the facility reductions, I would like to better understand how that is affecting programming, and where the cuts would actually [be made].”
Italiano said this information will be forthcoming in future meetings.
Italiano concluded his presentation, saying “I’m the chef. I get the menu. I put it all together. Basically, if you take the [healthcare] waiver, could you reinstitute some of those items. You could take none of it, part of it, or all of it.
“Essentially, it really comes down to the money. It’s basically an increase in taxes to put more back into the budget. It’s not my decision. I don’t pay these $30,000, $40,000 taxes. It’s a hard choice to make. We know the taxes are high, and we want to provide as many resources as we can to the school.”
Note: A Montgomery person with a $1.8 million home would pay $41,714.96 according to the tentative budget adopted. That’s an increase of $37.44 over the current year.
Montgomery Board of Education members at the March 18 meeting.
Board Member Joanna Filak, who is up for re-election this year, made comments indicating that more cuts may be made to the tentative 2025-26 budget.
“This is still a preliminary budget,” Filak said. “We are still looking through some of the accounts. Where in the consulting / professional piece are you looking to, and what types of savings have you found there?” she asked Business Administrator Italiano. “I would also hope to see cuts in the professional piece.”
Regarding the “professional piece,” Italiano, who presented the 2025-26 tentative budget, answered that his role is to gather information from the budget managers. These professionals are the school administrators and principals who put in their budget requests each year.
“My job is to be sure that the basics are covered, and to work with administrators and budget principals on what their needs are.
“My expertise includes facilities, building and grounds, cafeteria …,” he said. “I don’t know what these people (educators) do, or how they do it — but I give them a lot of credit for doing it every day. I don’t have anything, off the top of my head, that is an exorbitant fee that I would propose, say, changing a service to inhouse or doing something differently. But, I welcome the conversation over the next couple weeks to see if there are fees or redundancies that we could reduce to be more efficient.”
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Filak suggested that after the budget presentation, that maybe the administrators and MTEA stakeholders could provide input into the budget.
“Maybe they could help find additional savings,” Filak said.
Educators Express Their Thoughts
Jen Riddell, president, Association of Principals and Supervisors of Montgomery Township (APSMT), spoke about why the school board should fully fund the schools to the 2% cap and allow the healthcare waiver.
The waiver is necessary to generate funds to cover health care costs. Without it, it will lead to staff cuts, and potential program cuts, and larger class sizes, she said.
“Last year, the board did not include the health cost waiver. This resulted in the reduction of employees. Now, without having the health cost waiver again, we are hearing that another 10 employees would have to be cut.
“This will continue into the 2026-2027 school year, as health care will continue to increase, and because the waiver funds are not in this 25-26 budget, … another round of cuts [layoffs] will take place next year, which in total could be as much of 30 to 40 employees over three years.
“This reduction could devastate the district. A reduction of this size does not happen without significantly impacting the student experience in the areas of academics, electives, the arts, etc.,” she said.
Reduction in staff leads to higher class size, higher student to teacher ratios, fewer co-curricular activities, sports, and job responsibility leads to devaluation and burnout, she said.
The estimated total pay range for a teacher at Montgomery Township School District is $61K–$92K per year, which includes base salary and additional pay. The average teacher base salary at Montgomery Township School District is $75K per year, according to Glassdoor.com.
Jen Riddell, president, Association of Principals and Supervisors of Montgomery Township (APSMT), speak to the school board.
“We have seen fiscal responsibility by the superintendent by not taking the full 2% for some years … and the health waiver was worth a lot, but the superintendent only used a portion of it.
“These practices show the district leadership is efficient, maybe too efficient. Why are you [some board members] questioning their expertise and demanding more cost [cuts] than what was shared with you?” she asked.
“It is devastating to hear [some] board members want the labor funds out. We just don’t understand why there are board members who are not supporting the superintendent. [She] is following our [professional] budget managers who know what our students need,” she said.
“It is one thing to manage state aid cuts, but another to know the board has the ability to keep quality in place for students and programs, and to chooses not to.”
“We do not run the district at a high cost per pupil. Reports available to us show that our costs per pupil is lower than Princeton, Hopewell, Ridgewood, Millburn, Bernards, East Brunswick, and many more.
“Why are you willing to sacrifice our quality? We see other districts having to cut security, transportation, programs, sports clubs, and even have to put in activity fees. We are here to say, don’t bring that to us.”
MTEA President Michael Razzoli.
MTEA President Michael Razzoli spoke on behalf of the 600 MTEA members.
“Last year, the board chose not to budget to cap, which resulted in 10 teaching positions being eliminated,” he said. “The board faces a critical decision – you will choose whether to [fund the district to the cap allowed], and whether to leave vital funding on the table [the healthcare waiver].
“You say you made this decision on behalf of the community, and yet, I’ve never heard once a single community resident tell you that they want to cut positions, increase our class sizes, and have fewer educational programs to save a few bucks.
“Ladies and gentlemen, a few bucks is all we are talking about. To include the healthcare waiver [in the 2025-26] the impact on the average home in Montgomery would be just $4 a week. That’s less than a cup of coffee these days.
“I hope that offsets the decrease in home values because your school quality is directly correlated to your home values,” Razzoli said.
Time to regionalize districts. Stop paying the insane salaries of all these administrators . Consolidating is the answer… before this state and town bankrupts everyone. Montgomery is not the great town it once was.