Sort of.

After months of OPRA requests, multiple files, and a lot of back and forth, we finally have something that resembles the building-level budget detail I originally asked for.

Roughly adding up the data provided, the total comes to about $6 million — less than 10% of the District’s full $~60 million budget for 2025-26. In other words, even after all this effort, what was eventually released represents only a tiny slice of how the District’s money is actually spent. The overwhelming majority of the budget sits in centralized accounts: salaries, benefits, contracts, tuition payments, debt service — the areas where most of the money moves.

At this point, there’s no need to keep pressing. The point was never really about this one file or these few numbers.

The point was to demonstrate that the District does, in fact, have a legal obligation to provide this level of detail when requested.

It took months to get here, and that raises a more basic question:

How much time, money, and legal expense did the District incur simply to avoid releasing information that was always public to begin with?

Wouldn’t it have been easier — and cheaper — to provide this upfront?

As I wrote yesterday, the position of Business Administrator has been an ongoing problem for the District ever since Donna Felezzola left. She was not perfect, but she was responsive to OPRA requests and often provided information sooner than required. Since her departure, it has been four years of bad numbers, OPRA lawsuits, an over-reliance on (bad) legal advice, inaccurate reports, alliances with individual BOE members, unprofessional conduct in meetings, and audit findings.

The process of selecting a new Business Administrator should have been open to the public, especially given how much damage this office’s dysfunction has caused over the past four years — both for the District and the community. With that said, it’s important to keep an open mind and to understand that candidates have no control over their own hiring process.

My hope is that Ms. Nicholson, likely to be approved  tomorrow night, can restore the Business Office to transparency, neutrality, and competence – if this is her goal, we will of course support her every step of the way.

Copy of School Specific Budgets

Full District Budget (published earlier this year)

Subscribe to nj21st For Free

Our Commitment to Ethical Journalism