The plan for a new school is stalled, and the board argued about it in public

What happened

Bayonne has been preparing a bond referendum that would build a new school on the St. Andrews site and pay for facility improvements across the district. At the August 25, 2026 meeting a trustee said the board had been asked by the superintendent and administration in February 2026 to move ahead with that plan, that the work had been done and hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money spent on it, and that trustees had been told at a committee meeting the week before that someone had stopped the referendum. The trustee asked publicly who had the authority to stop it and whether the reason was educational and financial or political, and asked the board to put the question to Bayonne voters. The board president replied that she had not stopped anything, had not politicised it, and would like this board to bring the referendum to fruition before the term ends. The superintendent said putting the architect and legal counsel out to RFP would slow the process and that costs could be discussed once those were appointed.

Why it matters to families

A referendum is the only way New Jersey voters get a direct say on a major school building project, and this one would decide whether Bayonne gets a new school building. As of the August meeting no referendum date had been set and the next step was appointing an architect and legal counsel, so the project is slipping. The public exchange also shows the board itself does not agree on who decided to pause it.

The evidence

The district's own recording of the August 25, 2026 meeting and workshop captures the exchange: a trustee stating that 'in February, this board was asked by our superintendent administration to move forward with a plan for a referendum' that 'includes building new school at St. Andrews site along with improvement facility projects throughout the district'; that 'hundreds of thousands of taxpayer' money had been spent 'getting this project to the point where' it could move; that at the previous week's committee meeting trustees 'were told that someone has stopped it'; and asking 'who stopped it, who has the authority to stop it, why is it stopped'. The board president replies 'I did not stop anything with the referendum', 'I have not politicized anything', and 'I'd like very much to have this existing board be the one that brings to fruition that referendum'. The superintendent says 'you put out the architect and the legal counsel for RFP. So that'll definitely slow the process up.' The transcript is auto-generated from the district's recording, is not approved minutes, and garbles some names and place names.

The source