By Barbara A. Preston | Posted May 8, 2025
The educational experience for Montgomery and Rocky Hill students continues to be eroded, according to a statement the Montgomery Township Education Association (MTEA) issued today.
"Despite the outcry of hundreds of MTEA members and community residents, the Montgomery Township Board of Education voted to eliminate more than 20 staff positions at its board meeting last week," said MTEA President Mike Razzoli. "As the meeting unfolded, it became clear the reasons for the staff cuts are simply because the board intentionally chose not to use funds available to the district."
“It’s unconscionable [board members] would willing leave this money on the table instead of saving staff positions,” Razzoli said.
The Montgomery Township Board of Education.
Montgomery resident Francine Pfeffer, a lobbyist for the NJ Education Association, spoke at the budget hearing last week. She urged Montgomery School Board members to fully fund the budget.
"I work on school funding policy," Pfeffer said. "From what I know, we need to raise as much revenue as we are allowed.
"Montgomery received over $1 million in federal funding this year, with about $850,000 for IDEA [special education] and about $280,000 in Titles I-VI and other funding. The threatened cuts to states like New Jersey make it irresponsible to not raise as much money as we can at this time."
For the last couple of years, the school board elected not to budget to cap, leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars out of reach for use in a current budget year, according to the MTEA. At the end of the budget year, this money turns into banked cap, which—if not used within a certain time period—expires with no opportunity to regain it. Montgomery Township had just under $1.6 million that needed to be used in the 2025-26 budget before being lost, but the board inexplicably voted against including the full amount.
MTEA President Mike Razzoli at a school board meeting.
“Given Montgomery Township’s reputation as an award-winning school system, it’s hard to fathom why the board chose not to take advantage of all funding opportunities in order to keep class sizes down and vital staff positions intact,” Razzoli continued. “Instead, the district only allocated a portion of the banked cap for these costs, ignoring over $800,000 in available monies that could have significantly reduced the number of positions they were forced to eliminate.”
In addition to available banked cap, a budget analysis indicates the board also chose not to apply for a state waiver to obtain $1 million in order offset increased health care costs. This means that a combined total of over $1.8 million is now lost to the community’s schools.
Some board members said they wanted to avoid raising taxes, but the impact on the average household in Montgomery would have been roughly $40/month should they have used the full amount available, Razzoli said.
“While we are not suggesting that it is always appropriate to raise taxes, Montgomery Township—like hundreds of other districts around the state—could have used a total of $2.6 million without going over the budget cap to save these positions,” Razzoli explained. “The weekly cost to the taxpayer would have been less than a single trip to Starbucks.”
Advertisement
MTEA members said in a prepared statement that they are "upset at the board’s justification for their fiscal conservatism, as they watched surrounding districts approve budgets that prioritize educational programming and staff, even if it included minimal tax increases for the community."
The Hillsborough Township Board of Education just adopted its 2025-26 school budget that raises taxes in order to save two dozen staff positions and extracurricular programs.
“The bottom line is that our board willfully chose to ignore financial opportunities that could have provided much-needed monies to create a budget that frees us from this ongoing cycle of staff and programmatic cuts—and they want the public to believe it’s in their best interest,” Razzoli stated. “That mindset is wrong for our schools, and it suggests that perhaps this board is wrong for Montgomery Township, too.”
