Belleville School Finances Are In ‘Good Place,’ Official Says
BELLEVILLE, NJ — The financial picture is looking much rosier for the Belleville Public School District these days, administrators say.
Earlier this week, district officials announced that Belleville got a certificate of excellence from the Association of School Business Officials for “diligent and accurate” reporting of its finances to the state in June. It’s the second consecutive year the district has received the award.
It’s a long way from where Belleville stood in 2014, when the district was operating at a deep deficit – which it dug itself out of with the help of a $4.2 million loan from the New Jersey Department of Education. As part of the deal, Belleville was assigned a state monitor – who still has a big impact on the district’s finances.
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Over the following years, Belleville began turning things around, bringing in two new administrators to help lead the effort: former superintendent Richard Tomko and business administrator Matthew Paladino.
Tomko recently departed from Belleville to take a new post as school superintendent in Garfield. However, Paladino still remains at the helm of the business office – and he says that the district is “in a good place now” thanks to a lot of hard work by a lot of people.
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“Under the leadership of interim superintendent of school Nick Perrapato, the board of education under president Gabrielle Bennett-Meany and our state monitor, Tom Egan, we’re already off to another great school year and we’re hoping to continue to build upon the fiscal discipline and strategic execution that we have established,” Paladino said.
The district is still facing challenges – among them, a steeply rising increase in student enrollment. See Related: Belleville Schools May See 625 New Students In 10 Years, Official Says
But according to Paladino and other administrators, the Belleville school district has seen some big turning points over the past decade. They include:
QSAC SCORES – “By 2017, the district showed marked improvement in the state’s Quality Single Accountability Continuum that measures a school districts’ instruction and programs, fiscal management, governance, operations and personnel. As of 2023, the district was earning an overall ‘high performing’ rating from the state, earning 100% success in three of the categories.”
REDISTRICTING/RISE – “Redistricting helped ease overcrowding in the middle school, and the Realizing Individual Student Enrichment (RISE) program has helped boost academics in a district that now boasts a 93% graduation rate.”
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PRE-K – “Pre-K education has also drastically expanded in the past six years in Belleville, and the addition of the Hornblower Early Education Center on Main Street has been home to more than 250 young students.” Read More: Gov. Murphy Praises Belleville’s Growing Preschool Program
INFRASTRUCTURE – “In 2022, the district unveiled the Belleville Indoor Training Facility, a 25,000-square-foot space on Cortlandt Street housed in a converted auto body shop designed for high school athletes, as well as the public. The facility opened with two wrestling rooms, an all-purpose room with hardwood floors and a workout room with exercise equipment ranging from a golf driving simulator to chest presses to rowing machines. A year earlier, the ribbon was cut on a major renovation of Clearman Field, at Union Avenue and Holmes Street. The field services School No. 8, at 183 Union Ave., during the school day. Afterward, it is home to some of the school district’s sports programs, as well as open to the entire community based on availability. In 2017, Belleville voters approved a $48.5 million bond referendum that allowed the district to update the lighting, plumbing, HVAC equipment and more at several schools. The district was also able to use some of the funds to make its schools compliant with accessibility regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Of these and other capital projects, perhaps none has been more popular with students than the 2023 opening of the Buccaneer Bistro. The project transformed what had been the Belleville High School Senior Cafeteria into a new, welcoming space where fresh deli sandwiches, a pizza station, burrito bowls, Chinese food and other delights await hungry students.”
BELLEVILLE SCHOOL TAXES
Property taxes in New Jersey are mainly made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. In 2023, the average Belleville homeowner paid $10,909 in property taxes on a home valued at $278,760. About 38.8 percent of that amount went to the school district. Read More: Property Taxes In Belleville-Nutley (See Latest 5-Year Breakdown)
The district’s state monitor approved a 6.42 percent tax hike for school taxes in Belleville earlier this year – which was a big jump from recent years. Read More: School Tax Hike In Belleville; Monitor Makes Decision After Tie Vote From BOE
Although Belleville homeowners are facing a tax increase under the current budget, the district has set a goal of keeping tax hikes to $100 or less for the average homeowner during the majority of the past decade – a milepost that it has been hitting, according to figures presented at a school board meeting last year.
Previous years’ increases in the Belleville school district include:
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