'Cutting To The Bone': 24 Staff Cuts, Tax Increase In Hillsborough School Budget

HILLSBOROUGH, NJ — The district once again delivered grim news on Monday when it introduced its preliminary budget for the 2025-26 school year.

In order to balance the budget, the Hillsborough Township School District must reduce staff by 24 positions by April 28, raise taxes and make a number of other impactful cuts.

"We are cutting to the bone. We need to get from one year to the next," said Superintendent Michael Volpe at the Board of Education meeting on Monday.

Volpe and Business Administrator Gerald Eckert presented the budget on Monday.

The proposed total budget of $153,931,103 for the 2025-26 school year is an increase of 3.96 percent or roughly $1.4 million over the 2024-25 budget.

"In order to keep Hillsborough, Hillsborough each and every year we go above 2 percent that’s automatic. Just by existing, just by being who we are. Our prices are more than 2 percent," said Volpe.

Eckert noted the district saw a 12 percent or $2.7 million increase over last year's budget for health benefits and a 10 percent increase for dental benefits.

The main drivers of the budget include: salary and benefits which take up 80 percent of budget, student transportation takes up 7 percent, special education takes up 3 percent, and buildings and grounds maintenance takes up 4 percent.

Along with the increase in salaries and benefits, Hillsborough also yet again lost state aid. This year they are expected to get $535,930 less than last year in school aid from New Jersey as part of the latest state budget proposal.

"Since 2019-20 we have lost $7.5 million in our base line of state aid and in that time period that equates to $26 million," said Volpe. "Every state aid cut hurts us deeply so we’re kind of out of options this year and unfortunately I am going to have to deliver the community a budget that I am not proud of."

Cuts

To balance the budget Volpe announced a number of cuts that need to be made including the loss of 24 staff members. Of the 24 staff, Volpe anticipates 12 will be gone through retirement and attrition.

The cuts to staff will be a combination of certificated staff, support staff, Hillsborough Education Association staff, unaffiliated staff, and administration.

"We are getting down to staff. We have certain essential things that we need. Our staff being the most important and the fact that we’re going to have to touch them in this budget really, really bothers me," said Volpe.

Other cuts include:

• Removing the proposed High School Rekeying project
• Lease purchasing security and tech upgrades
• Reducing Link It Assessments
• Removing placeholders for planning services related to redistricting (they are still redistricting for Fall 2026 but will be doing a lot more in-house administrative work)
• Reinstating pay-to-play(paying for participating in sports and clubs)
• Courtesy bussing
• Funds being reserved for full-day kindergarten
• Middle school sports

Tax Impact

The average home property in Hillsborough Township valued at $594,089 will pay $7,922 in 2025 which is a tax rate decrease of 3.61 percent. The average home property in Millstone valued at $409,598 will pay $5,387 in 2024 which is a tax rate increase of 48.85 percent.

"The large increase in the Millstone tax rate is attributable to the discovery that many of the Millstone students were incorrectly coded with the Hillsborough Municipal code and correcting this results in Millstone being charged the appropriate share of the tax levy," said Eckert.

"We don’t want to hurt anyone when it comes to tax implications but we also want to be very transparent," said Volpe.

Capital Reserve Projects

The budget also includes a number of proposed projects across the district using $1 million from the capital reserve. These reserve funds can only be used for capital projects and can not be used to offset the general fund.

Hillsborough High School:

• Replace Gym Divider
• Replace water heater
• Redo gym floors
• Replace wall pads
• Install a loading dock gate
• Replace gym bleachers
• Replace scoreboard
• Resurfacing track
• Replace turf field.

Other schools:

• Repave driveway - Middle School
• Redo floors throughout building - Auten Road Intermediate School
• Install 2 ADA ramps - Hillsborough Elementary School
• Refinish gym floss - Hillsborough Elementary School
• Replace fire panel system - Hillsborough Elementary School
• Roof repair - Triangle Elementary School
• Replace boilerroom doors - Triangle Elementary School and Woodfern Elementary School

"We do not expect to complete all of these projects within the budget of $1 million but by listing them we will be able to maximize the use of those funds," said Volpe.

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

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