Hoboken BOE presents $88.4 million 2025–26 budget, seeks roughly $6.37 million tax-levy increase

The Hoboken Board of Education presented its proposed operating budget for the 2025–26 school year at a May special meeting, laying out an $88.4 million budget that district staff said is funded primarily by the local tax levy and would require an increase in that levy of roughly $6.37 million.

District presenters described the budget as balanced at $88,411,902 in revenues and expenditures. They said approximately $74 million of the budget would come from the local tax levy, with state aid and other sources covering the remainder. Presenters gave two close estimates of the tax-levy increase during the presentation: an earlier figure of $6.4 million and a later, specific figure of $6,370,000, which staff said represents a 9.44% increase in the levy. District staff said that increase equates to about $236 per year, or roughly $20 per month, for the average assessed home in Hoboken.

Why it matters: district officials told the board that the 2025–26 budget must absorb the end of federal COVID-relief funding that had been available through September 2024 and the phaseout of specific hold-harmless aid from 2018 legislation. At the same time the district is managing continuing enrollment growth and rising operating costs, including health insurance and special-education expenses.

Key elements and cost drivers - Enrollment and staffing: The district plans to open new classrooms and hire additional staff to respond to rising enrollment. Presenters said the budget includes funding for 26 new teachers and support staff to address class-size needs. - Salaries and benefits: Staff said salaries and benefits comprise about 62% of the budget. Using the district’s stated total, that share equates to about $54.8 million. - Health insurance: Presenters said health-insurance costs rose about 14% this year and staff projected another increase of about 15% in 2026. - Special education and related costs: The presentation identified roughly $1.7 million in additional special-education costs for the year, including new out-of-district placements and extended-school-year services. Transportation costs related to special education were reported up by about $440,000. - Programs and extracurriculars: The budget includes continued funding for co‑curricular and extracurricular programs (presenters said that category is up by about $700,000), curriculum updates, a new K–12 financial literacy initiative, expansion of the elementary dual-language Spanish-immersion program to second grade, and new middle- and high-school courses. - Charter-school contribution: The draft budget includes a charter-school contribution listed around $13 million; presenters noted that the software-generated amount depends on the number of seats filled by Hoboken residents and special-education spending.

Revenue breakdown and reserves District presenters summarized revenue sources as: local tax levy (approximately $74 million), state aid (about $8.6 million), use of fund balance (presented as 3.5, interpreted in context as $3.5 million), and miscellaneous revenue slightly above $2 million. The presentation noted that ‘‘banked cap’’ — the district’s statutory ability to raise taxes above the 2% levy cap because of past under-enrollment or other adjustments — exists in theory but is not actual cash.

Context, accountability and next steps Presenters framed the budget as a preservation and expansion of programs rather than cuts, noting the district is not eliminating teachers or major programs despite the tax increase. They underscored recent district achievements — high college acceptances and scholarship totals, state performance recognitions, and national awards for schools — as background for the requested investments. The board opened the meeting to public comment but recorded that no one had signed up and no public comments were made on the budget.

Formal actions The transcript records a procedural motion to adjourn the meeting; board members moved and seconded the motion and conducted a voice vote to close the meeting.

What the presentation did not specify or left unclear - The precise date for final adoption and whether the board will hold further hearings before adopting the budget was not specified in the presentation. - Some figures appeared twice with minor discrepancies during the presentation (for example $6,400,000 and $6,370,000 for the levy increase); staff later cited $6,370,000 and 9.44% as the specific levy-change figure.

Meeting context and public engagement The meeting included multiple district speakers and administrators presenting slides and budget detail; no members of the public submitted comments for either agenda or non‑agenda items. Presenters acknowledged a mid-season transition in the business office: Dana Sullivan is serving as interim business administrator following the retirement of the district’s prior business administrator, Joyce Goode. The board adjourned after the presentation.