District overview
West New York School District
A $217 million district funded almost entirely by the state, spending its reserves down to nothing by 2027, whose board record is published only where it cannot be read.
Who pays for West New York's schools, and where is the board's record?
West New York teaches about 7,000 pupils in nine schools plus an early childhood school, from six elementary schools and the Harry L. Bain and Albio Sires schools through West New York Middle School to Memorial High School. Money is the first thing to understand: of $217,453,550 budgeted for 2026-27, the local tax levy is $19,389,008, under nine cents in every dollar, while state sources provide $137,143,441 in the general fund and a further $17,276,242 in grants. The district ended June 2025 holding $53,134,276 of general-fund balance, $50,305,356 of it reserved as excess surplus, which is more than two and a half times the annual local levy. Governance is unusual in New Jersey: West New York keeps the April school election rather than the November one: the Hudson County Clerk's 2026 calendar sets 21 April 2026 as school board election day for West New York, and the district does not appear on the county's November school-board petition notice. Its nine trustees' terms run out in April, three at a time, and the April 2026 contest was uncontested, with three incumbents filing for three seats. Jonathan Castaneda is board president, Jose Ruben Mendoza vice president, Clara Brito Herrera superintendent and Dean Austin the business administrator and board secretary. The gap in this page is deliberate and worth stating up front: the board's agendas and minutes are published only on BoardDocs, whose files cannot be retrieved here, so what follows is built from the district's business-office, facilities and accountability pages and from state filings, not from meeting records.
State aid pays for nine tenths of the district
$137,143,441 of general-fund state revenue against a $19,389,008 local levy in a $217,453,550 budget for 2026-27.
Every reserve is budgeted to near zero by June 2027
The legal reserve falls from $50,305,356 audited at June 2025 to $21,118,871 and then zero; capital reserve to $3,100,000, maintenance reserve to $100,000, emergency reserve to nothing. The 2026-27 budget draws $36,574,030 - about 19 percent of the general fund - from fund balance and reserves.
Cost per pupil is up 38 percent in two years
$23,789 proposed for 2026-27 against $17,197 actually incurred in 2024-25, while pupils on the rolls fell from 7,415 to 6,985.
Two drinking-water outlets tested above the state action level
Room 107 at Public School 4 at 43.6 parts per billion and the high school annex kitchen sink at 87.5, against a 15 part-per-billion limit, with no remediation record posted.
Twelve board meetings, no readable record
The board met twelve times between October 2025 and September 2026; every agenda and set of minutes is published only on a document platform whose files cannot be retrieved here.
The high school is 443 pupils over its rated capacity
Memorial High School held 2,345 pupils against a capacity of 1,902 in the latest audited statistics, and the middle school 1,087 against 900; the state-funded replacement middle school is still at site preparation.
West New York's finances, enrolment and building tests
Against $218,075,763 revised for 2025-26 and $175,705,218 actually spent in 2024-25.
Up 2.0 percent from $19,008,831. It covers under nine percent of what the district spends.
A further $17,276,242 of state money sits in the special revenue fund.
Against $17,197 actual in 2024-25. Compare only with other New Jersey districts' figures in the same format.
Down from 7,415 in October 2024; the district projects 7,360 for October 2026.
Part of $53,134,276 of general-fund balance; $29,186,485 was appropriated into 2025-26 and $10,246,615 sits in capital reserve.
Room 107 at Public School 4 at 43.6 ppb and the Memorial High School Annex A kitchen sink at 87.5 ppb, out of several hundred outlets tested across twelve buildings.
Every one is published as an agenda on a platform whose files cannot be retrieved here; the district's own site carries no archive.
$21,299,030 of appropriated fund balance plus $6,900,000 from capital reserve, $7,375,000 from maintenance reserve and $1,000,000 from the emergency reserve - about 19 percent of the general fund, from sources that do not recur.
2,345 enrolled against a capacity of 1,902. The middle school is 187 over its own capacity of 900.
Major projects
The 2026-27 budget
In effect from July 2026The district filed a $217,453,550 budget for 2026-27 with a local tax levy of $19,389,008, up two percent, and $137,143,441 of general-fund state aid. Spending is essentially flat against the revised 2025-26 figure of $218,075,763 but well above the $175,705,218 actually spent in 2024-25. The filing projects enrolment recovering to 7,360 after a fall to 6,985, and puts comparative cost per pupil at $23,789. What the board said when it adopted any of this is not on the public record this page can reach.
- District posts its 2026-27 user-friendly budget summary
- Board holds its annual reorganisation meeting, agenda on its document platform only
Funding
State aid of $137,143,441 in the general fund plus $17,276,242 in grants, a local levy of $19,389,008, and appropriated surplus
$29,186,485 of prior-year excess surplus was appropriated into 2025-26; the 2026-27 appropriation of surplus is in the filing rather than in any board document available here.
Lead testing in all twelve district buildings
Results posted; no remediation record publishedBetween December 2024 and April 2025 the district sampled drinking-water outlets in every building it operates - the nine schools, the early childhood school, the board offices, the bus garage and the warehouse - and posted the laboratory results. Almost every outlet came back below one part per billion. Two exceeded the state's 15 part-per-billion action level: Room 107 at Public School 4 at 43.6 and the kitchen single sink at Memorial High School Annex A at 87.5. Nothing has been posted since June 2025: no retest, no remediation note and no copy of the notification letters the state requires.
- Public School 4 sampled; Room 107 returns 43.6 ppb
- Memorial High School annex sampled; kitchen sink returns 87.5 ppb
- Results for all twelve buildings posted
Funding
Operating budget; no cost figure for testing or remediation appears in any document posted by the district
The results are image-only scans, so figures were read by character recognition and confirmed at two resolutions.
Comprehensive Equity Plan 2025-2028
Three-year plan in its second yearThe district posted the three-year comprehensive equity plan every New Jersey district must file, covering 2025 to 2028. It is the newest accountability document the district publishes itself: its quality single accountability review page stops at a 2020-21 performance review and its audit page at 2021-22, so the state's own filings are the only current source for those. The plan is posted as an image-only scan.
- Comprehensive Equity Plan 2025-2028 posted
- State letter on the redesigned 2024-25 performance reports circulated to families
Funding
Operating budget and federal grant programmes; the plan carries no separate spending figure
Posted as a scan, so its contents were read by character recognition.
State-funded replacement middle school
Under construction; opening targeted for September 2028The New Jersey Schools Development Authority approved a 162,000 square foot middle school for up to 876 pupils in West New York in 2022, at an estimated $121.8 million. It awarded a $91.75 million design-build contract in January 2026 and broke ground at 6400 Broadway on 18 June 2026, with the school targeted to open in September 2028 for grades six to eight, carrying 30 classrooms, six science laboratories, a science and technology laboratory, an auditorium and a gymnasium. The audited report for 2024-25 records $45,699,425 approved and $42,613,208 spent on the district's behalf as at June 30, 2025. The district does not carry the construction cost - the state authority funds and manages school construction here, and this is its seventh capital project in West New York - but the district's own 2026-27 budget draws $6.9 million from capital reserve for a local share.
- Final project charter and design-build award approved
- $91.75 million design-build contract awarded
- Groundbreaking at 6400 Broadway
- Targeted opening for grades six to eight
Funding
New Jersey Schools Development Authority, which funds and manages school construction in the district
Estimated at $121.8 million; $45,699,425 approved and $42,613,208 expended on the district's behalf as at June 30, 2025.
Recent news
This overview is built from the documents West New York publishes on its own site - the 2026-27 budget summary, lead testing results for all twelve buildings, the comprehensive equity plan, the professional development, mentor and virtual instruction plans, the school calendar and the state's performance-report letter - together with three state filings for district code 5670: the audited financial report for the year ended June 30, 2025 and the user-friendly budgets for 2025-26 and 2026-27, and the board's own policy on electronic devices. The district's site answers ordinary requests with a refusal, so its pages were read through a proxied browser; the documents themselves download directly.
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