The BOE and Lack of a Budget for 2025/2026

When Tracy Rogers was installed in January of 2025 as the Asbury Park Board of Education President, one of his stated goals was transparency with the community regarding actions of the Asbury Park Board of Education (BOE). For many in our community, this was a welcomed goal after an over 54% tax increase for residents due to the school budget.

When it comes to a school district’s budget, transparency is key to prompt good dialogue with the community, to provide insight to potential deficits or budgetary cuts, and for elected officials to demonstrate they are being good stewards of taxpayer’s money.

Roger’s goal regarding transparency seems to be in question as The Asbury Park Board of Education canceled the regularly scheduled board meeting for April 24th, 2025 without providing a reason; and has not provided a date and time for a replacement public meeting.

Further, with the State of New Jersey Department of Education’s deadline of May 7, 2025 as the last day for a school district to hold a public hearing on a district’s budget, it seems the Asbury Park Board of Education is running out of time.

According to the Asbury Park Board of Education’s website the next scheduled meeting will be May 22, 2025, which is well past the mandated deadline for a public meeting regarding a district’s budget. Is the Asbury Park Board of Education eliminating the opportunity for the public to make comments or ask questions regarding the District’s budget?

The Asbury Park Board of Education did hold a townhall style meeting on March 1, 2025 to discuss the district’s budget, but many residents commented during the public portion of this meeting that the Asbury Park Board of Education’s presentation provided no actual details of the budget.

At the regularly scheduled Asbury Park Board of Education meetings in January, February, and March of this year and the townhall meeting, there have been discussions and statements from the BOE leadership and the State Monitor that the District may be facing an $11 million to $13 million dollar deficit. The BOE leadership has blamed the State of New Jersey and Charter schools for most, if not all, of the budgetary issues within the Asbury Park School District.

While there has been discussion from the Asbury Park Board of Education of selling district buildings to help offset this shortfall, the Asbury Park Board of Education has not presented any budget cuts to address the potential $11 million to $13 million dollar deficit. The BOE leadership simply continues to point blame at others. With less than seven days left for the BOE leadership to schedule a public hearing on the school budget, time is slipping away. NOTE: Public Notice requires all meetings to be posted 72 hours in advance of the meeting date and time, hence the “7 days left”, although there are more ‘calendar’ days left.

Taxpayers, students and the overall community can only hope that Tracy Rogers will remember his goal of transparency and provide the community an opportunity to speak publicly regarding the budget; however, having a public meeting at such a late stage in the budget process renders community input meaningless and prevents any kind of continuing community dialogue. The community will have little time to respond to any proposed budget, and no time for any board members to consider points made by the community.