District overview
Old Bridge Township Public Schools
How Old Bridge's schools are paid for, who decides, and what is changing
Where does the money come from, and why is the tax bill rising so fast?
Old Bridge teaches about 8,000 students in fifteen schools on a 2026-2027 operating budget of $198,983,105. Of that, $166,742,927 comes from the local property tax levy and only $28,859,567 from state aid. Two things drive the picture. First, state aid has stopped growing: it was $29.5 million two years ago and is $28.9 million now, while the budget has grown by $32 million. Second, employee health care has exploded - the district budgeted a 34 percent increase in medical benefits for 2026-2027. New Jersey caps school tax levy increases at 2 percent, but lets districts add the part of a health-cost increase above 2 percent without a public vote, and that adjustment was worth $9.48 million this year. The result is an 8.15 percent levy increase, on top of a jump the year before: the levy has gone from $125.6 million in 2024-2025 to $166.7 million in 2026-2027, about 33 percent in two years.
Tax levy: $166.7 million, up 8.15 percent
The 2 percent cap plus a $9.48 million health-cost adjustment. The district also cut millions of dollars of spending; its business administrator told residents that without those cuts the increase would have needed to be roughly 8 percentage points higher again.
State aid: $28.9 million, and flat
Equalisation aid swung from $16.9 million in 2024-2025 to nothing in 2025-2026 and back to $8.1 million in 2026-2027. The one-off Stabilized School Budget Aid Grant and Tax Levy Incentive Aid that softened the two previous budgets were not available for 2026-2027.
Health care is the whole story
A budgeted 34 percent rise in medical benefits. The district changed its prescription benefits plan in March 2026 specifically to slow this down, saying most staff would not be affected.
Spending per pupil: $20,909
Up from $20,044 in the revised 2025-2026 budget and $18,125 actually spent in 2024-2025. This covers current operating expense and excludes tuition paid out, transport and judgments.
The district's finances are audited clean: its auditor reported no audit recommendations for the year ended June 30, 2025, the second year in a row. The pressure is on cost, not control.
Where the district stands
Up from $185,301,172 in 2025-2026.
Up 8.15 percent from $154,179,064, and up from $125,557,050 in 2024-2025.
$29,498,871 in 2024-2025 and $28,307,157 in 2025-2026, so flat while the budget grew.
Current operating expense per pupil, excluding tuition paid out, transport and judgments. $18,125 actually spent in 2024-2025.
8,061 in October 2024; 8,261 estimated for October 2026.
The allowable adjustment tied to a budgeted 34 percent increase in medical benefits, added without a public vote.
Summed from the budget lines whose stated explanation is 'REDISTRICTING EFFORTS'. The arithmetic is ours; each line is in the minutes.
Reported by the superintendent hours after the ceremony; ten graduates entered the United States military.
Every board agenda session, regular meeting, special meeting and posted committee meeting from October 2025 to October 2026.
Major projects
Elementary redistricting, phase one
In effect for the 2026-2027 school year; further phases under discussionThe district has begun redrawing its elementary attendance pattern to cut costs, starting with McDivitt, Madison Park, Memorial and Shepard. The 2026-2027 budget removes $1,168,436 in teacher, administrator, secretarial, transport and energy spending under the heading 'redistricting efforts', and bus contracts were amended before the school year started.
- Finance committee reviews an updated enrollment study with consultants Parette Somjen
- Finance committee discusses roughly $320 million of building needs and whether closing a school pays off
- At the budget hearing board members name consolidation and redistricting as the district's remaining options
- Final 2026-2027 budget adopted with $1,168,436 of cuts labelled redistricting efforts
- Nurse-staffing table marks McDivitt, Madison Park, Memorial and Shepard as affected by redistricting
- Board amends 2026-2027 bus contracts to reflect the recent redistricting
Funding
Not a spending project: it is a saving. $1,168,436 of appropriations were removed from the 2026-2027 operating budget.
About $320 million of building improvement needs
Identified and discussed; no funding plan adoptedDistrict facility work has identified roughly $320 million of improvements needed across the buildings, including roofs and boilers. The administration has put the figure to the board alongside an enrollment study and the prospect of more students from new housing, and has discussed whether closing a school would pay for itself.
- Finance committee reviews an updated enrollment study in executive session
- Finance and planning committee discusses the roughly $320 million figure and the trade-off of closing a building
- 2026 bond refunding closes, capped at $14,650,000, saving at least 3 percent in net present value
Funding
Unfunded. No bond referendum has been put to voters in the collected record; the district refinanced existing 2002 bonds in April 2026 rather than borrowing more.
MagicSchool AI for students and staff
Live for high school students from September 2026; elementary and middle school nextThe district has adopted MagicSchool, an AI platform for schools. High school students now have accounts reached through Clever with a teacher-issued join code, AI language is being written into all three student handbooks, staff get a weekly AI tip, and the district is choosing elementary and middle school programmes to bring on next. Student activity rooms stay visible to district administrators and AI characters that act like people are restricted to staff.
- Curriculum committee presentation first discusses MagicSchool
- Student services committee reviews MagicSchool use
- Student services committee receives the 2026-2027 MagicSchool plan, including high school student accounts
Funding
District technology budget; the published presentation does not give a contract value.
The Bridge to 2028 strategic plan
Adopted and in use as the district's reporting frameOld Bridge's 2023-2028 strategic plan sets three priorities - Excellence in Education, Fiscal Resiliency and the Whole Child. Since February 2026 the superintendent has organised his monthly public report around them, and the plan is the stated basis for the long-term planning committee's work on redistricting and consolidation.
- Superintendent begins aligning his monthly report to the plan's three priorities
- Adopted budget's closing message ties future redistricting phases to the plan
- Superintendent and cabinet begin setting 2026-2027 goals against the plan
Funding
No separate funding; the plan frames the operating budget and the long-term planning committee's agenda.
Recent news
Built from documents the district publishes in its own online document library, together with its policy manual. The library is read each week and every figure on this page comes from a document stored from it.
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