District overview
Belleville Public Schools
A state-funded district that spent last year under a state monitor and has just been told it can manage on its own again.
Who pays for Belleville's schools, and who is watching?
Belleville Public Schools teaches about 4,850 children in ten schools, from the Hornblower Early Childhood Center through Belleville High School. A seven-member elected board sets policy and adopts the budget. What makes Belleville different from most districts is where the money comes from: in 2024-25 the state supplied $88.6 million, 64% of general-fund revenue, against $49.2 million, 36%, from local property tax. That dependence is also why a shortfall in an earlier year brought in a state monitor, assigned by the New Jersey Department of Education, who sat in on public board meetings and reported the district's finances to the county executive superintendent. At the end of 2024-25 the department decided Belleville could operate independently again.
The state pays about two dollars in every three
Audited 2024-25 general-fund revenue was $88,553,849 from state sources (64.23%), $49,224,565 local (35.70%) and $92,964 federal (0.07%).
A state monitor supervised the district and has now been withdrawn
The monitor was assigned over a prior-year general-fund deficit, cost $112,692 in salary during 2024-25, and the department concluded at year end that the district could function independently.
The district is repaying a state loan
The 2024-25 accounts record $416,239 of principal repaid on a New Jersey Department of Education loan.
Local taxes are rising while state aid edges down
The 2026-27 levy is $52,630,900, up about 6% from $49,657,745, while state aid falls to $68,098,422 from $69,153,615.
The auditor's opinion on the 2024-25 financial statements was unmodified - clean - and the state has lifted the monitor. The three findings in the auditor's management report are about purchasing paperwork and a preschool contract, not about missing money.
Belleville's finances and state oversight
Down from a revised $127,809,462 in 2025-26, which had included a $4.5 million capital-reserve withdrawal.
Up from $49,657,745, an increase of about 6%; two years earlier it was $48,242,133.
Down from $69,153,615 revised for 2025-26. State aid is the district's main income, unlike most New Jersey districts.
New Jersey's standard comparative measure, up from $22,630 revised for 2025-26. Compare only with other New Jersey districts' figures in the same format.
Down from 4,960 in October 2024, and including 828 full-time special-education pupils.
Budgeted at $75,000 and adjusted upward by $37,693 during the year.
Two concern purchasing and bid-law compliance; one concerns payments to a private preschool provider that were not reduced for under-enrolment.
Seven meeting dates in the period have the district's own public meeting notice. No agenda, minutes or recording is retrievable: the district publishes agendas and minutes only on BoardDocs, its own past-minutes archive stops in 2018, and its board meeting video playlist stops in 2023.
Major projects
Coming out from under state supervision
Monitor withdrawn, controls being rebuiltThe Department of Education assigned Belleville a state monitor after a general-fund deficit in an earlier year. During 2024-25 the monitor attended public board meetings and reported the district's financial condition to the county executive superintendent, the board approved administrative changes and budget transfers to avoid ending the year in deficit, and the district reorganised registration and residency checks. At the end of the year the department concluded the district could function independently. The auditor's management report for the same year still records three findings, two of them about purchasing controls, so the rebuilding is not finished.
- Fiscal year ends; the department determines the district can function independently
- Auditor issues a clean opinion but records three findings, two on purchasing controls
- 2026-27 budget filed, raising the local levy about 6% as state aid edges down
Funding
District general fund, including $112,692 of state monitor salaries in 2024-25 and $416,239 of principal repaid on a New Jersey Department of Education loan
Monitor salaries were budgeted at $75,000 and adjusted to $112,693 during the year.
Spending down the building-repair reserve
Drawing downBelleville is funding capital work out of its capital reserve rather than by borrowing. The reserve stood at nearly $5 million at June 2024, $4.5 million a year later, and the budget plans to take $1 million more in 2026-27, leaving about $3.21 million projected at June 2027. The 2025-26 revised budget had taken $4.5 million.
- Capital reserve audited at $4,500,000
- 2026-27 budget plans a further $1,000,000 withdrawal
Funding
District capital reserve, for excess costs and other capital projects
$4,500,000 withdrawn in the revised 2025-26 budget and $1,000,000 planned for 2026-27; the published filing does not name the individual projects.
Recent news
This overview is built from the district's audited financial report and auditor's management report for the year ended June 30, 2025, its state-format user-friendly budgets for 2025-26 and 2026-27, the public meeting notices it published under the Open Public Meetings Act, its 2026 board meeting dates and committee assignments, its 2026-27 student and parent handbooks, and the state assessment presentations it gave the board.
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