22 positions slashed in Boro school budget

District is ‘falling off of a financial cliff’

Originally Published to the Ocean Star on May 8, 2026

POINT PLEASANT — At its May 4 meeting, the Board of Education adopted a $61 million budget for 2026-2027 and approved a staffing reduction of 22 positions.

The total appropriations for the budget for the coming school year is $61,508,599, a $2,895,039 increase from last year’s budget of $58,613,560. $12,405,810 will come from anticipated revenues and $49,102,789 is to be raised via taxes, $3,202,934 more than the $45,899,855 raised by taxes last year.

The total operating expenses are $57,298,082, with a capital outlay of $857,815 and debt service totalling $1,091,500.

The tax rate per $100 of assessed valuation is $1.4350. The average home assessment is $405,369, and the total district annual tax bill on the average assessed home is $5,816.92, a $369.17 increase from last year.

Superintendent Adam Angelozzi said the reduction in staffing “ultimately reflects staffing adjustments due to ongoing budgetary pressures, including continued reductions in state aid and rising fixed costs.”

Angelozzi explained that some positions are being cut because they either could not be filled, or the district didn’t have a backup for someone who resigned of their own volition, and that only a small percentage of the positions being cut are currently filled.

“There are a total of 22 positions that are being cut from the budget, between paraprofessional positions that we haven’t been able to fill – they’re not people that we’re actually letting go – all the way to certificated staff positions for a total of four non-tenured individuals,” he said.

“After accounting for attrition and strategic transfers, fewer than five staff members were impacted, all of whom have already been notified,” he said. Angelozzi declined to provide additional details as to the staff members who were impacted.

Borough resident Karen Troutman raised concerns about cutting paraprofessionals, commonly referred to as “paras,” from the staff.

“I’m concerned, reading about all these cuts. That’s what my concern is – they said we need paras and then we’re cutting paras,” she said. “I also saw a lot of jobs you cut, and I don’t see any jobs in the top being cut.”

Troutman noted the shared services agreement between Point Pleasant and other towns, wherein multiple districts share staff and resources to reduce inefficiencies, and suggested that the district consolidate funds within the borough before assisting students in neighboring towns. After another borough resident, John Demeester, voiced similar concerns about the budget, Business Administrator Christina Fessler explained that some of the total expenditures are actually offset by the revenue that the shared service agreement brings into the district.

Angelozzi said over the past five years, the school board has moved administrative positions and restructured multiple times in response to budget issues. “This is not the first time we’ve had budget woes,” he said. “I stood up here over the past two meetings and said we are not standing at the edge of a financial cliff, we are falling.”

“We have shared services across multiple other towns, a large part that are administrative, certificated, non-certificated staff doing additional responsibilities to bring money back into the district,” he explained.

In response to Troutman’s suggestion for consolidation, Angelozzi said the district is “getting close to maxing out on all the shared services,” but that “there might be some legislation coming down the road on that and there might not be. I don’t know that there’s many towns that are really interested in consolidating the districts, and sometimes the cost-savings there are negative. It’s an extremely complicated process.”

“While these decisions are never easy,” Angelozzi said, “they are part of a broader effort to navigate difficult financial conditions while keeping the budget in check.”