How did we get here?
The crisis
First, our schools accumulated a $12.6M debt from past overspending.
Second, even after the school-wide cuts that were made on Jan 1, 2026, we are $5M short of what we need for our 2025–2026 school budget because the costs of serving our students was not fully budgeted for the previous year.
Mismanagement by previous administrations
The prior superintendent and business office accrued $12.6M in unpaid invoices from previous years (busing, food service, out-of-district placements, etc.) and created a 2025–2026 budget that was $7M short.
They did not disclose this to the Board of Education or the public. A review by the current administration found no missing or stolen funds — just years of spending beyond the approved budget.
Economics of running a school are getting harder
In Montclair, over 80% of school funding comes from property taxes. State law caps property-tax increases at 2% per year, but inflation and school costs are rising faster, so revenues cannot keep up with expenses.
At the same time, state and federal rules require more services for our most vulnerable students, while state and federal funding for those services has declined.
Superintendent Turner shared the following slides at the Montclair Board of Education Special Meeting on Oct. 7, 2025.
2024-2025 Budget Overspent
The 2024-2025 Montclair Public Schools operating budget was $147,470,493 as presented on May 13, 2024.
The 2024-2025 deficit of $12.6M represents just over 8.5% of the budget for that year.
2025-2026 Projected Deficits
A Google search reveals the 2025-2026 Montclair Public School District budget was a $170.2M spending plan that was presented in March 2025 and adopted in May 2025.
The projected 2025-2026 deficit of $7M represents a shortfall of just over 4% of approved budget for this year.