Hunterdon Central presents tentative 2025–26 budget, board approves proposed budget and capital projects

Hunterdon Central Regional High School District Superintendent Jessica Candelosi Haid and Business Administrator Heather Spitzer presented the district's tentative 2025'26 budget at the board meeting Tuesday, then the board voted to approve the proposed budget and related capital reserve and maintenance reserve withdrawals.

The presentation and discussion focused on several budgetary pressures and offsets. Spitzer said the district is projecting 171 students will attend county vocational academies next year, a shift that reduces Hunterdon Central's counted enrollment and therefore state aid while creating tuition and transportation costs. "We send students to the vocational academies and we do not get to count those students in our enrollment count," Spitzer said. She told the board the district estimated $10,163 in tuition per academy student this year and that the 171-student projection was a March estimate that could change before August.

Spitzer described long-term declines in state aid and enrollment: "In the last 8 years, we have lost $927,000 in state aid," she said, and reported a…