West Milford board holds public hearing on 2025–26 budget; board moves to adopt after county approval

The West Milford Township Public School District Board of Education held a public hearing on the 2025–26 school budget and moved to adopt the plan after noting the county had approved and the district had advertised the budget on April 20.

Superintendent Dr. Kitchen opened the exchange by saying the budget presented at the board’s May 11 preliminary meeting — with the presentation attached to the board docs — was unchanged and had been sent to the county and advertised in local newspapers. Board members were invited to ask questions; no substantive changes were presented during the hearing.

Mr. Schultz led the budget discussion and confirmed steps taken to date: presentation at the preliminary meeting, county approval and advertisement on April 20, thereby satisfying the legal notice requirement for the public hearing. No members of the public raised questions about budget specifics during the hearing.

After brief remarks, a motion to adopt the budget was put before the board and decided by roll call. The roll call recorded members voting "yes," "no," or "abstain" as part of the official vote. The board moved forward with adoption following that roll-call vote.

The hearing and adoption conclude the district’s local steps for the 2025–26 budget as described in the agenda materials; the district had previously provided the full budget presentation in BoardDocs for public review.

Votes at the meeting that relate directly to the budget were recorded during the roll call; members’ individual votes are part of the official meeting record and are summarized in the actions section below.

The board did not discuss dollar amounts, programs added or cut, or specific tax-rate changes during the public portion of the budget hearing; those details remain in the published BoardDocs materials accompanying the budget presentation.