Ahead of presenting the 2026-27 South Orange-Maplewood School District preliminary budget at a board meeting on March 24, Supt. Jason Bing sent a letter to families on Friday evening, March 20, previewing some potential cuts as the district seeks to close a $3M budget gap.
Primarily, Bing wrote that the district would be ending courtesy preschool busing for students who live between 1.25 and 2 miles (2 miles and over is mandated by state law).
Bing also said that school start and end times would be changed so that “our schools to enable some of our school buses to serve three different routes in a day.”
Bing wrote that the district would be rebidding contracts for outsourced services and would be working to avoid layoffs through attrition and using existing staff efficiently.
The superintendent has been sounding the alarm on budget struggles for over a year. Although a February 2026 budget presentation to the Board of School Estimate painted a slightly more optimistic picture, Bing expressed disappointment after the announcement of state aid on March 12, saying that the “amount was far less than the funding entitled to us by the state aid formula.”
At the February Board of Education meeting, Finance Chair Malini Nayar reported that the preliminary balanced budget update presented to the committee by SOMSD Business Administrator Imani Moody included a 2% increase in general fund tax levy, but that the tax levy cap adjustment allowed for exceptions such as increased healthcare costs and student enrollment and would “collectively result in an approximate 6% increase in the local tax levy compared to the 2025/26 fiscal year.”
The district switched health care plans last October to avert a 31% increase in the School Employees’ Health Benefits Program. Nonetheless, the district is facing an 11% increase in health insurance costs.
Read Bing’s full March 20 letter to families here:
Dear Students, Families, and Staff,
I’m writing to deliver an important message about our district’s financial health and our budget for the 26-27 school year. I believe transparency and over-communication are important, so I need our community to know where we stand right now.
For the past year, I have been warning of the “fiscal cliff“ that is coming to our district and many others in the state. Rising costs are far outpacing expected revenue, and our only path forward to deliver a balanced budget is with responsible adjustments to spending.
On Thursday, March 12th, we received our calculation of state aid contributions, meaning that we now have a full picture of expected revenue for the upcoming school year. For the second year in a row, that amount was far less than the funding entitled to us by the state aid formula, leaving taxpayers bearing a higher percentage of the total cost of operating our schools.
We are developing our budget expecting to use the full amount of our statutory taxing authority, which is limited to a 2% increase over last year, plus certain allowances, the most notable of which is to cover our increase in health insurance costs. We worked very hard to mitigate those increases, but must rely on the additional taxing authority permitted by law to blunt the blow of these rising costs.
As I’ve mentioned many times in the past year, this year‘s budget will require hard choices. And we are now preparing to make those choices. I will be presenting a preliminary budget at our board meeting on March 24 that relies on changes to our delivery of services, including the following:
- Ending courtesy preschool busing: The cost of delivering busing to general education preschool students who live between 1.25 and 2 miles is almost four times that of an elementary student, and we have seen limited demand for this service. Students with transportation on their IEPs would not be impacted.
- Change of school start and end times in elementary, middle, and high school: In order to maximize the use of our contracted school bus services and minimize the number of buses needed to service these routes, we will adjust the start and end times for our schools to enable some of our school buses to serve three different routes in a day. These tiers will be separated by 30 minutes to reduce tardiness. These start and end time changes will also permit bus routes that do not exceed 30 minutes, significantly reducing crosstown trips. These are not only efficiency changes but are also aimed at improving mental health, academic performance, and attendance.
- Efficiently retain staff: Every member of our staff plays a vital role in educating our students, however salaries are also our single biggest expense. We anticipate staffing to shrink naturally through retirements, attrition, nonrenewals and resignations, and hope to avoid major layoffs. We have completed a comprehensive review of enrollment and sections in each of our schools that will permit us to use our staff and resources most efficiently.
- Reduction in cost of privatized services: SOMSD is heavily reliant on outsourced services, and those increasing costs are a large part of our structural deficit. We intend to rebid contracts to optimize such services as security, custodial, and paraprofessionals. Our intention and commitment is to fully support our students in need of additional help in the classroom, while reducing costs that we currently pay above and beyond most other districts.
As we continue to develop our budget in advance of our meeting on the 24th, and refine it as we have better information leading up to our final budget adoption meeting on May 4, we may have the opportunity to revisit some of these modifications. We intend in every case to continue to provide a strong and rich education to all our students, in compliance with all applicable laws and our mission statement.
I will host two online town hall events in April to discuss these plans in more detail and hear feedback from our community. Additionally, I encourage you to reach out with your comments as well. Please feel free to email them directly to me, [email protected].
In partnership,
Jason Bing
Superintendent of Schools
