MTPS Budget and Ethical Questions

Current leaders of the Middletown BOE Frank Capone (president) and Jacqueline Tobacco (vice president) are running for re-election along with newcomer Caterina Skalaski as part of the “Putting Children First” (PCF) ticket. Since joining the BOE in 2020, Capone and Tobacco have repeatedly garnered national media attention on conservative opinion shows, such as “Fox & Friends.” Members of the PCF ticket have also made headlines in liberal outlets, such as MSN, as one BOE challenger has recently claimed that Tobacco has threatened him with violence. And while these headlines may have brought the PCF candidates some fame, many in the community believe that the quiet work of setting budgets and upholding ethical obligations as non-partisan public officials has been overlooked during the tenure of Capone and Tobacco. According to the BOE’s Code of Ethics, members must “refuse to surrender [their] independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups . . .” (18A: 12-24.1, Section F). Yet partisanship seems to be the motivating factor for the PCF ticket, as its members have publicly supported far-right candidates and causes, all while draining MTPS’s capital reserves, incurring mounting legal fees, voting to increase property taxes, and displaying questionable ethics in the public sphere.

Draining of Capital Reserves and Lack of Transparency on Strategic Planning

Over the last decade, MTPS has maintained a balance of at least one million dollars in its capital reserves, yet at the end of this academic year, under the leadership of the current BOE, these reserves are projected to have dwindled to several thousand dollars. The draining of capital reserves is especially problematic considering the age of Middletown’s schools and the fact that the continued deterioration of MTPS buildings may be detrimental to the health of school children. For example, high levels of lead were found in the drinking water of a majority of MTPS schools in 2021, yet the current BOE has not widely shared updates on any remediation projects. Additionally, many of MTPS’s HVAC systems are aging and should be replaced to ensure the best air quality for MTPS children. Nevertheless, robust updates on pending HVAC replacements have not been communicated to taxpayers or parents. Postponing these costly facilities projects may have a deleterious health impact on the people who learn and work in Middletown’s public schools. Despite these pressing projects that directly affect the health of children, the current BOE, led by Capone and Tobacco, has made replacing a turf field and a playground their priority. It is also worth noting that under the leadership of the PCF candidates, the Board failed to properly vet its vendors for the turf replacement project, which resulted in a lawsuit that further ballooned MTPS’s budget. Additionally, despite their initial claims of transparency, the Board has not provided an update on the goals associated with MTPS’s strategic plan since May 2021. Typically, school districts provide updates on the status of such matters on an annual basis, yet Middletown residents have now gone nearly three years without a comprehensive update on the long-term goals associated with the strategic plan. The future doesn’t look good for these long-term projects, either, as data from the BOE's Final Budget Presentation on April 25, 2023 shows that the current BOE projects a capital reserve of only $4,853 by June 2024 (slide 11). Prior to June 2022, the capital reserves during this same month were well over one million dollars for each year of the last decade. In June 2015 MTPS’s capital reserves were a whopping $4,727,481 (pg 140). With the current reserves at only a few thousand dollars, the recent funding of a new playground and turf field may seem frivolous to many Middletown residents, particularly when one considers the more pressing projects that have serious health implications.

Increase in Property Taxes

As previously reported by Patch, both Capone and Tobacco supported property tax increases, then proceeded to blame Governor Murphy for these increases instead of applying for state aid and better balancing the MTPS budget. PCF’s continued criticism of Murphy reflects a deliberate effort on the part of these candidates to engage in partisan posturing as they misrepresent the facts. Capone and Tobacco know full well that municipalities (not the state) determine property taxes, and that the funding of public schools was 62% of Middletown’s municipal budget in 2022 (slide 3). Thus, the duo that promised fiscal responsibility before they were elected to the BOE is largely responsible for recent local tax increases, as they are the ones who approve the district’s budget. Capone and Tobacco also regularly fail to mention the fact that under their leadership MTPS missed out on valuable funding by not applying for State Stabilization Aid in 2022, simply because they didn’t like NJ’s laws on masking. It must be noted that the acceptance of stabilization aid was not tied to masking laws, as Superintendent Walker noted during a BOE meeting on the subject, yet Capone and Tobacco nevertheless insisted on using their roles as elected representatives of what should be a nonpartisan public position to make their political persuasions about masking known, all of which ran counter to expert medical advice at the time. (Notably, Middletown still ultimately complied with the masking laws, even after missing out on millions of dollars of aid from the state.)

Mounting Legal Fees and Potential Ethical Violations

During the last two years, Middletown has regularly incurred legal fees of at least $10,000 per month, which were billed to Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, & Jacobs (invoiced in BA-3 Bills section). For example, in 2022, according to the meeting documents archive records, the BOE approved $21,964 in legal fees on April 27 (pg 9-10) and $22,973 on September 20 (pg 13). In 2023, during the controversial revision to Policy 5756, the BOE’s spending on litigious matters further ballooned: On April 25, the BOE approved $24,242 in legal fees (pg 8). That following month, on June 20, the legal fees were billed at $27,853 (pg 11). In September of this year, the BOE’s lawyer raked in $23,775 (pg 16-17). These mounting legal fees are likely due to Capone and Tobacco’s desire to repeatedly challenge NJ’s laws with illegal policy changes, despite their ethical obligation to “uphold and enforce all laws, rules and regulations . . .” (NJ BOE Code of Ethics, Section A). It should be noted that BOE members are not elected to legislate; they are elected to follow the laws and see that the schools are well run. Yet, throughout their tenure on the Board, Capone and Tobacco have consistently focused on partisan hot-button issues such as masking policies, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and transgender students’ right to confidentiality, all of which are manufactured controversies that frequently make headlines on conservative mass media outlets. Thus far, all of Capone and Tobacco’s controversial policy proposals have failed, and these failures have come at the expense of taxpayers, as all have required billable hours of legal consultation. Currently, another lawsuit may be on the horizon, as MTPS has allegedly censored BrainPop content on the Holocaust, a move that many parents and advocates of free speech believe to be anti-Semitic and antithetical to the basic tenets of public education.

In addition to displaying partisanship in their roles, which is against the BOE’s Code of Ethics, Capone and Tobacco have also failed to effectively consult with “those who will be affected by [their policies]” (18A: 12-24.1, Section C). This fact was on full display at the June 20th BOE meeting when the public was given an opportunity to comment on policy 5756. At this meeting, every single transgender student who spoke expressed strong opposition to PCF’s policy on students’ rights to confidentiality. In other words, Capone and Tobacco failed to listen to the actual people who would be impacted by their policy change, despite their ethical obligation to do so. Additionally, the “Putting Children First” team of Capone, Tobacco, and Caterina Skalaski have recently used unflattering pictures of their BOE challengers without their consent on a mailer that was sent to Middletown homes. PCF’s mailer also claims—without evidence—that all of their opponents plan to “double property taxes” and are “supported by Phil Murphy and other radical progressive groups.” Both claims are false, as PCF’s challengers have expressed no such desires or political agendas. If MTPS students are taught to conduct themselves in an honest and respectful fashion in the public square, then one would expect the same conduct from adults, especially those who hold leadership roles in the community, yet many Middletown residents believe that the recent smear campaign conducted by the “Putting Children First” candidates sets a poor example for children, as this mailer promotes falsehoods and publicly shares pictures of people without their consent. This loss of civility, honesty, and civic responsibility is not unique to Middletown, however. Over the last few years, many school boards have become ground zero for fact-free partisan debates, disagreements that now take precedence over quiet and effective governance, which includes the work of balancing the budget and pursuing strategic priorities to promote the long-term viability of schools. Nevertheless, on November 7th, Middletown residents will have an opportunity look beyond headlines and attack ads, informing themselves of all BOE candidates’ positions before voting in the upcoming election.

Note: Capone and Tobacco were emailed a draft of this article and invited to make corrections. Both candidates failed to comment or correct the record.