33 Staff Positions Cut, Tax Increase In Bridgewater-Raritan School Budget

BRIDGEWATER, NJ — Bridgewater and Raritan homeowners may expect school tax increases and staffing cuts across the district.

The proposed total budget of $187,916,465 for the 2025-26 school year is an increase of 2.64 percent or roughly $4.8 million over the 2024-25 budget.

Superintendent Robert Beers presented the budget at the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.

"This was quite a challenge this year. As you know we live in a time where costs increase at a rate far greater than 2 percent but we are governed by a 2 percent cap," said Beers. "Every year there is a challenge and a process to go through and we are always in a cutting stance to trim the operation in the best way possible to maintain programs, etc. to benefit our kids and our community."

Under the introduced budget, the tax impact on the average home property in Bridgewater Township valued at $576,459 will pay $16.26 per $100,000 of assessment per year.

The average home property in Raritan Borough valued at $322,884 will pay $46.26 per $100,000 of assessment per year.

"Back in January, we were talking about a dire situation and going beyond 2 percent is something we never want to do but we are able to mitigate that so we are looking at much less than we expected," said Board President Steven Singer of the proposed increase.

When the district started the budget process they projected a shortfall of roughly $4.3 million.

However, the district also saw that enrollment declined around 340 students in total over the past four years, "which to our benefit allowed us to look at our staffing to right-size our operations," said Business Administrator Kevin Lomski.

Additionally, the district is projecting about 100 fewer students in K through sixth grade for next year compared to this year.

To balance the budget there will be a reduction of 33 staff positions across the school district. The reduction will be a combination of attrition, such as retirement, and lower enrollment numbers.

Positions to be eliminated include:

• 7 - full-time K-6 grade level employees
• 5 - full-time 9-12 grade level employees
• 20 - full-time district support services employees (teacher assistants, child study team, counselors, interventionist, speech-related services, instructional)
• 1 - full-time administrator

As a result of the district planning ahead for the budget since October, they were able to plan for the upcoming reduction of staff.

"If there was someone who left their position, if there was a way to not rehire for that position, if we didn’t need it for the following year, so we are doing that," said Lomski. "This means the majority of these positions are through attrition. They are already vacant now or will be by the end of the year."

"We really used an analytical approach to meet our numbers," said Beers. "We tried to make cuts that affected the fewest number of people."

The main drivers of the budget include:

• Salary - 56.6 percent
• Benefits - 20.6 percent
• Maintenance - 6.8 percent
• Transportation - 6.2 percent
• Tuition - 3.3 percent

The budget also includes a number of proposed projects across the district including:

• Bridgewater-Raritan High School Media Center
• Milltown/Wade paving
• Eisenhower gym floors and courtyard renovation
• Painting projects

Referendum work:

• Window replacement phase 2
• Primary school HVAC upgrades
• Intermediate school toilet renovations
• Full-day kindergarten classroom renovations
• Bradley Gardens cafeteria renovation
• High School turf, track resurfacing, and baseball field site work

"Look in the end there are critical areas that are essential for your school's success. It’s an investment in your people, an investment in your programs, and a requisite investment in the facilities that are going to support your programs and your people," said Beers. "I believe we have accomplished this in our budget. There are no cuts to any educational programming."

A public hearing and final vote on the budget will be held at the April 29 BOE meeting.

See the full tentative budget presentation below(begins at 1:10:00):

Have a news tip? Email alexis.tarrazi@patch.com.