District overview
Township of Union School District
How Township of Union schools are paid for, who decides, and what is being cut, built or redrawn
Where does the money come from?
The Township of Union raises most of its own money. The advertised 2026-2027 budget shows a local tax levy of $115.2 million inside a $175.5 million operating budget, and the board raised the levy again to $116,543,043.69 when it adopted the final budget on April 30, 2026. State revenue is going the other way: $62.3 million in 2024-2025, $58.8 million in 2025-2026 and $57.0 million proposed for 2026-2027, with equalisation aid down from $43.6 million to $37.5 million over the same period. The district's own budget presentation put the losses at $1,734,137 of state aid in 2025-2026 and $1,682,113 in 2026-2027, against a 2 percent cap on levy growth, while health care rose $4.5 million and salaries $3.0 million. To close a $9.85 million gap between its preliminary and final budget the board used a $2.7 million health benefit adjustment, spent $2,991,691 of surplus and fund balance, and approved a reduction in force abolishing positions from June 30, 2026. Separately, $4.2 million of state aid went to remediation at Hannah Caldwell Elementary School.
Local taxes carry about two thirds of the budget
$115,185,323 advertised for 2026-2027, raised to $116,543,043.69 in the final adopted budget, against a $175,541,670 operating budget. The levy has risen from $106.0 million in 2024-2025.
State aid has fallen two years in a row
State revenue drops from $62,344,058 to $58,796,517 to $56,988,322, with equalisation aid down from $43,572,284 to $37,508,655. The district puts the losses at $1,734,137 and then $1,682,113.
The gap was closed by cutting staff
A $9,851,989.61 shortfall between preliminary and final budget, made up of $2.0 million transportation, $6.9 million salaries and health and $0.9 million miscellaneous, judgement and pension. The board approved a reduction in force and abolishment of positions effective June 30, 2026; the teachers' association said teachers and librarians were cut.
Enrolment is falling and boundaries may move
Pupils on roll go from 7,809 to 7,547 to 7,484 across three years. Redistricting has been discussed since January 2026, tied first to a referendum and then listed among the district's own budget options as updating boundary lines.
Nine elected members, twice-monthly meetings
The board holds a worksession and a regular meeting each month, publishing the agenda, the full exhibit packet and the minutes for each on its own board portal. Kimberly Scott-Hayden is president and Michael Cohan vice president.
None of this means the district is failing its students. Union High School graduated 593 of a 636-strong cohort in 2026, a 93.2 percent graduation rate; the operations department scored 97 percent on its state NJQSAC review; the district publishes every agenda, exhibit and set of minutes openly; and it moved early on phones, piloting a management app at Burnet Middle School before the state law took effect. The squeeze described here is mostly falling state aid and a remediation bill, not a failure of the classroom.
Where the district stands
From the federal NCES Common Core of Data 2025-26 preliminary directory, not a district document.
Major projects
Hannah Caldwell Elementary School remediation
Bills being paid from state aid; cost disputed in public commentIn September 2025 the board's finance chair told the community that $4.2 million of state aid would be appropriated to pay bills for remediation at Hannah Caldwell Elementary School. The work has run through the district's finances since. In June 2026 a resident told the board he had reviewed the financials and that the district was $15 million in the red with $8 million relating to Hannah Caldwell, alleging that a failure to address mould and district inaction had caused it, and public comment the following week noted that the assistant superintendent is responsible for Hannah Caldwell issues and the business administrator for its insurance claims. The district has not published its own accounting of the remediation.
- Board told $4.2 million of state aid will pay Hannah Caldwell remediation bills
- Parent raises the Hannah Caldwell pre-kindergarten vacancy in public comment
- Resident alleges a $15 million deficit with $8 million relating to Hannah Caldwell and a failure to address mould
- Public comment names the officers responsible for Hannah Caldwell issues and its insurance claims
Funding
$4.2 million of state aid appropriated to pay remediation bills, with insurance claims outstanding
Reduction in force and the 2026-2027 budget
Approved, effective June 30, 2026Facing a $9,851,989.61 gap between its preliminary and final budget, the board adopted a final 2026-2027 budget with a $116,543,043.69 levy and approved a reduction in force abolishing positions from the end of June 30, 2026. The gap was $2.0 million in transportation, $6.9 million in salaries and health and $0.9 million in miscellaneous, judgement and pension costs, closed partly by raising the health adjustment $1.4 million. The teachers' association opposed the budget and said teachers and librarians had been cut.
- Finance chair tells the board the district lost $1.7 million in state aid and difficult decisions are ahead
- Tentative budget adopted with a $115,185,323.69 levy
- Final budget adopted at $116,543,043.69 and reduction in force approved
- Public comment asks that new state funding be used to rehire staff who were cut
Funding
Operating budget, with a $2,731,453 health benefit adjustment to exceed the 2 percent levy cap and $2,991,691 of surplus and fund balance
Postponed building referendum and new boundary lines
Referendum postponed; redistricting unresolvedThe district lined up everything needed for a building referendum, appointing bond counsel and an architectural panel in January 2026 and putting four service contracts out to proposal in March. The superintendent told the board in January that redistricting was being aligned with the referendum, with the fifth grade raising a hurdle. On April 30 the board rejected all four proposals because the referendum had been postponed, and updating boundary lines then appeared on the district's list of budget options instead. No map, question, cost or date has been published for either.
- Bond counsel and architectural panel appointed at the organization meeting
- Superintendent says redistricting is being aligned with the referendum
- Proposals received for four referendum services
- All four proposals rejected because the referendum was postponed; updating boundary lines listed as a budget option
Funding
A referendum would require voter approval to borrow; the four rejected proposals covered bond counsel, financial advisor, public relations and environmental services
Doorman phone management pilot and Policy 5516
Piloted at Burnet Middle School; policy updated August 2026Burnet Middle School piloted Doorman, a cellphone management application, which the superintendent told the board in February 2026 made it the first school in New Jersey to launch the programme, ahead of New Jersey's school cellphone law taking effect on July 1, 2026. The district's Policy 5516, Student Use of Internet-Enabled Devices, was created in September 2021 and last edited in August 2026 and prohibits student device use on school grounds during the school day.
- Superintendent reports the Doorman pilot at Burnet Middle School, first in New Jersey
- New Jersey's school cellphone law takes effect
- Policy 5516 last edited
Funding
No separate appropriation identified in the collected records
Solar energy and computer-controlled heating
OperatingThe district has installed solar. The superintendent explained to the board in November 2025 that since the solar installation, heating and cooling run on a computer schedule that differs between day and night, in answer to a question about classroom temperatures and who monitors them. The adopted budget also carries small districtwide lines for asbestos work at $30,000 and classroom floor replacement at $26,383.
- Superintendent explains computer-scheduled heating and cooling since the solar installation
Funding
Operating and capital budget lines; the collected records do not give the solar installation's cost or financing
Recent news
Built from the Township of Union Board of Education's own board portal, which publishes for every meeting the agenda, the full exhibit packet and the approved minutes: 27 meetings from September 2025 through September 2026, together with the April 2026 advertised 2026-2027 budget, the monthly budget reports and superintendent's reports appended to the agendas, and the district's Strauss Esmay policy pages on student device use and generative artificial intelligence.
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