NJ Education Commissioner Refers Middletown School Closings To Administrative Law Judge

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Seven parents asked the New Jersey Department of Education to halt the closing of three schools in Middletown, but the state referred the matter to an Administrative Law judge, the parents' lawyer said Thursday.

Administrative law judges rule on disputes within state agencies, such as school districts.

On March 4, the seven parents filed this 206-page appeal with NJ Education Commissioner Lily Laux, asking her to intervene and keep Leonardo and Navesink elementaries and Bayshore Middle School open for one more year.

The parents who filed that are Kristin Rooney, Scott McPherson, Emilie Donohue, Jessica Donohue, Melissa Daus, Megan Daus and Kathleen Young. Their lawyer is Roshan Shah, owner of Shah Law Group in Shrewsbury.

In response, on March 23 lawyers for the Middletown school district asked Laux to dismiss the parents' petition (read the district's response here or here).

What happens now?

What the seven parents filed is not a lawsuit. It was simply a formal request asking the NJ Education Commissioner to intervene in the closing of Middletown schools.

The parents' request was automatically referred to a judge with the Office of Administrative Law, said a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Education.

There will be a pre-hearing conference May 13, said Shah. However, that May 13 date is just a scheduling conference that will be done by phone. It will decide, among other things, the date of a hearing on the case, and whether or not oral arguments will even be heard. (An administrative law judge could dismiss the parents' appeal without hearing oral arguments.)

It's rare that the state Department of Education has ever intervened to stop the closure of a school.

Shah said he's taken the parents' case for free. He told Patch Thursday:

"I don’t know if the NJ Dept. of Education has stopped closures in the past. I would also imagine that most closures don’t draw challenges because: a) residents don’t want to pay legal fees to make the challenge; and b) lawyers don’t usually volunteer pro bono services for these types of cases. In this instance, I opted to take on this matter pro bono. I attended my first board meeting in February 2026, couldn’t believe what I witnessed. That was all the motivation I needed to dig deeper."

The Middletown school board will be asked to accept next year's budget at next Tuesday night's meeting, April 28. That's the budget that includes and prepares for closing/converting the three schools.

A majority of the board is expected to adopt the budget next Tuesday, and the budget will then be submitted to Monmouth County and then the state Department of Education.

However, an administrative law judge could still rule to stop the school closings. He or she could make their ruling even after next year's budget is approved by the local school board, county and state.

7 Middletown Parents File Appeal With State, Seeking To Block School Closures (March 6)

Here's The Latest With Closing Schools In Middletown (April 22)

Correction: NJ Education Commissioner Lily Laux did not personally refer the parents' appeal to an Administrative Law judge. The DOE referred their appeal to the Office of Administrative Law as part of standard DOE policy and legal procedure.