Belleville Schools Face $2M Revenue Shortfall, Early Budget Numbers Show

BELLEVILLE, NJ — A combination of cuts to state aid and federal grants have put Belleville’s public schools in a $2 million hole to kick off a new budget season, administrators say.

On Wednesday evening, the Belleville Board of Education held a preliminary budget hearing for the 2026-2027 academic year – the first step in the district’s annual budget adoption process.

Business Administrator Tina Iaccheo said the proposed base budget for the 2026-2027 school year totals $139,110,586. Of this amount, $52,630,900 will be supported by the local tax levy.

Iaccheo said developing the latest budget has been “particularly challenging” on the expenditure side.

Iaccheo reported that the district continues to experience significant cost increases across multiple areas, including energy, tuition and employee benefits – which have risen almost 30 percent. Belleville is also juggling five collective bargaining agreements with employee unions, each with negotiated increases ranging between three and five percent.

Meanwhile, revenue hasn’t kept pace with the rising costs, she said.

The New Jersey Department of Education released anticipated for 2026-27 state aid figures for school districts last week. Belleville is in line to get $67,268,777 in state aid, down from last year’s $68,302,115 – a 1.51 percent decrease.

• Related: How Much State School Aid For Belleville-Nutley? NJ Releases Latest Totals

Belleville is also expected to see a roughly 20 percent drop in federal grant funding, which will be finalized later this year.

“On the revenue side alone, these changes represent an approximate $2 million shortfall,” Iaccheo said.

The board’s budget resolution also included two other items:

• Use of Health Care Adjustment – “The Belleville Board of Education includes in the proposed budget a health care costs adjustment as calculated in the budget software and pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-38 subsection (d) in the amount of $1,980,000. The additional funds will be used to pay for the additional increases in health care premiums.”
• Capital Reserve Withdrawal / Other Capital Projects – “Included in the general fund appropriations, budget line 620 is a withdrawal from capital reserve – other capital projects in the amount of $1,000,000 for other capital project costs of windows in the high school, new boiler at School 8, elevator modernizations at School 3 and the middle school, and various buildings and grounds equipment. The total cost of these projects/equipment is $1,000,000, which represents expenditures for construction elements or projects that are in addition to the facilities efficiency standards determined by the commissioner as necessary to achieve the New Jersey Student Learning Standards.”

Belleville School Superintendent Erick Alfonso said district administrators are approaching every budget decision with a “high level of fidelity.”

According to the superintendent, the instructional day for students and classroom sizes would remain unchanged under the spending plan.

“Countless hours have been dedicated to the development of the budget,” he said Wednesday. “And throughout this process, we have remained mindful of the responsibility to the students and to the taxpayers.”

“We scrutinized every account line to make sure that these are needs, not wants, and we don't have the room for luxury,” Alfonso continued.

“It's not a great scenario, but it's the reality that we're living in,” he said.

A public hearing for the proposed budget is scheduled for the board meeting on April 29.

Watch footage from the March 18 meeting here, or view it below (video is cued to Iaccheo's presentation):

READ MORE: Property Taxes Keep Rising In Nutley And Belleville: See Latest 5-Year Breakdowns

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