PRINCETON, NJ - Princeton Public Schools will close a $750,000 budget gap next year through classroom restructuring, staff cuts and new student activity fees, as the Board of Education approved a spending plan Tuesday that will raise taxes for the average homeowner by about $470 annually.
The 2026-2027 budget keeps the overall operating budget and tax levy unchanged from what Superintendent Mike LaSusa first presented in March, but a series of cost-cutting measures and new revenue sources were detailed at the meeting to show how the district arrived at a balanced spending plan.
The tax levy will increase 4.33 percent — above the state's 2 percent cap — largely because of soaring health care costs. Board President Dafna Kendal said the state allows districts to exceed the cap for health care expenses, noting that health care costs statewide rose 32 percent this year, though Princeton managed to hold its own increase to about 15.5 percent.
"Hopefully someone at the state legislature will look into that," Kendal said, "because that's just going to continue to rise."
The tax estimate is based on Princeton's average assessed home value of $854,000.
The biggest single savings — approximately $350,000 — will come from reorganizing class sections at the elementary level. At Littlebrook Elementary, the district will eliminate one section each in grades four and five by adjusting how students are grouped, keeping class sizes around 19 to 20 students per room.
Community Park Elementary, which has been at the center of ongoing parent concerns about class sizes, will shift to a model with three kindergarten sections of 15 students each and three first-grade sections of 15 each, with two sections in all remaining grades. LaSusa said the district feels confident enrollment won't grow beyond two sections in the upper grades at Community Park because the school does not continue to admit students who transfer in without prior dual-language immersion experience.
The smaller class sizes in the lower grades will also allow the district to reduce the number of instructional assistants currently assigned there.
Through attrition in non-teaching support positions, the district expects to save approximately $240,000. Cutting subscriptions and outside services — including Zoom, a climate survey platform called Performance Fact, the Tri-State Consortium membership, contracted reading services, a compliance-tracking tool called Hibster and BoardDocs — is projected to save about $150,000.
On the staffing side, the district is abolishing the Dean of Students title at Princeton High School and reclassifying the role as a school counselor focused on student engagement, a change driven by state certification requirements. The Coordinator of Student Health and Safety position will also be eliminated and replaced with a new Director of School Safety and Security role, which LaSusa said will provide centralized oversight of security monitors across all district schools.
The Food Literacy Coordinator position will be abolished outright.
Changes at the Princeton High School library will save roughly $115,000. After the head librarian retired in March, the district promoted the assistant to the top role and did not backfill the assistant position.
The district is also recommending the creation of a dedicated Supervisor of Social Studies K-12 — a position LaSusa said the district has lacked — at an expected net savings of around $110,000 achieved through salary differentials.
To generate new revenue, the board is moving toward introducing student activity fees at both Princeton Middle School and Princeton High School, expected to bring in approximately $200,000. The specific fee amounts and structure have not yet been finalized.
The budget passed 9-1, with board member Adam Bierman casting the lone no vote — though he called it largely symbolic.
"The new administration has taken on all the hard issues directly, with no spin, with expertise," Bierman said. "You're addressing the deficit I've been talking about for over a year. You've improved financial processes, added safeguards, and cut real fat."
Still, Bierman said he voted no because of broader concerns about Princeton's financial trajectory and the burden on residents.
"New Jersey has some of the highest property taxes in the country," he said. "Taxes just keep going up. It's enough."
He also raised concerns about economic diversity, saying rising costs are pushing lower-income and minority residents out of Princeton. "There's another Princeton where affordability is shrinking, hurting our most vulnerable citizens," he said.
LaSusa acknowledged that without structural changes, the district faces harder decisions ahead. "Our expenses are outrunning our revenues," he said. "If nothing changes, we're going to have to make probably more difficult decisions in the future."
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