Bloomfield School Budget Has Job Cuts, Tax Hike: See Final Numbers

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield Board of Education unanimously voted to approve the district’s latest school budget last week. The spending plan comes with a tax hike for local homeowners and several cuts – including staff reductions.

The 2026-2027 budget got a green light at the board’s meeting on April 28. Watch video footage here, or view it below.

Subscribe

According to figures presented at the meeting, the budget will come with a 4.97 percent increase to the local tax levy. A Bloomfield homeowner will see a $79 increase to the school portion of their taxes for every $100,000 of assessed property value.

Property taxes in New Jersey are mainly made up of three parts: school, municipal and county. In 2025, the average Bloomfield resident paid $12,379 in property taxes on a home valued at $354,872, not including credits and deductions. That broke down as follows: school (45.5%), municipal (39.7%) and county (14.8%).

>> RELATED: Average Bloomfield Property Tax Tops $12K: See Latest 5-Year Breakdown

There will be several “reductions in force” involving teachers, administrators and other school staff under the latest budget.

The list of staff cuts includes 16 instructional staff, four administrators, two facilities positions, one technician, and one clerical position:

• District Administration – Elimination of two field supervisor positions.
• District – Elimination of three certified instructional positions. Elimination of one clerical position.
• Bloomfield High School – Elimination of one non-classroom position. Elimination of two classroom positions.
• Bloomfield Middle School – Elimination of one non-classroom position. Elimination of two classroom positions.
• Berkeley School – Elimination of three classroom positions.
• Brookdale School – Elimination of one classroom position.
• Carteret School – Elimination of two classroom positions.
• Demarest School – Elimination of one classroom position.
• Franklin School – Elimination of two classroom positions.
• Watsessing School – Elimination of one classroom position.
• Technology – Elimination of one IT support specialist.
• Maintenance/Custodial – Elimination of two facilities department positions.

The district remains in full compliance with board policy on class sizes. All IEP and 504 mandates will be met, administrators said.

There will be a salary freeze for central office directors, and a salary freeze for central office non-affiliated staff.

Other cutbacks will include:

• Reduction of District-Wide supplies by 50%
• Reduction in technology subscriptions
• Reduction of non-mandated professional development
• Reduce contracted paraprofessional services due to attrition
• Reduce overtime for custodians
• Reduce overtime for transportation
• Reduce field trips
• Elimination of the Bloomfield Teacher Academy
• Elimination of the BackStop program
• Elimination of SAT Prep class at Bloomfield High School

The need for cuts was spurred by $10.4 million in cost increases, including health benefits and contractually obligated salary increases, administrators said.

“I know this is difficult,” Superintendent Salvatore Goncalves told attendees at last week’s board meeting.

“No one wants to see their tax dollars go up,” Goncalves said. “No one wants to see their children get anything less than they had the year before. We understand that. We feel the pain of that, because what we’re cutting tonight is what we all worked to build.”

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.