District overview
Livingston Board of Education School District
A district where local taxpayers fund nine dollars in ten, 37 posts were cut this year, and a $228 million building plan is heading for a referendum.
Why is Livingston cutting staff and planning to borrow $228 million at the same time?
Livingston teaches about 6,400 pupils in nine schools: six elementary schools, Mount Pleasant Middle School for grade six, Heritage Middle School for grades seven and eight, and Livingston High School. Almost all the money is local. Of $160,832,891 budgeted for 2026-27, the tax levy is $141,121,978 - a $136,638,078 general fund levy plus $4,483,900 for debt - against state aid of $11,033,132, so residents fund about nine dollars in every ten. Five people sit on the board, elected at the November general election to three-year terms, which under state law means residents do not vote on the school budget; the board discussed moving to an April election twice this year, tabled it in January and agreed to it in July, and the resolution has not appeared. Two forces dominate the year. Costs: employee benefits jump from 27.97 to 38.42 percent of salaries and out-of-district special education tuition rises to $10,087,681, which together produced a $5 million gap, a 6.37 percent rise in the operating levy using a $5.6 million health-care waiver, and the abolition of 37 posts including all four gifted and talented teachers. And space: the district's demographer counts 463 pupils it cannot house today and 1,116 by 2030-31, with the high school already 374 over capacity, and the board has told its architect to proceed with a $227,974,175 reconfiguration of every school level, at about $1,130 a year on the average home. A new superintendent, Mark Stern, took office on July 1, 2026, and three of six elementary principals changed at the same time.
Local property tax is nine tenths of the budget
$141,121,978 of levy against $11,033,132 of state aid in a $160,832,891 budget for 2026-27. The levy rose 5.18 percent overall and the operating part of it 6.37 percent.
Thirty-seven posts were abolished for this school year
Including an assistant superintendent, three supervisors, all four gifted and talented teachers, three mathematics teachers, three technology coaches, a counsellor, a social worker, six campus aides and seven secretaries. Four posts were created.
Benefits and out-of-district tuition are what drove it
Employee benefits go from 27.97 to 38.42 percent of salaries, a $8.6 million increase, and out-of-district tuition from $8,663,878 to $10,087,681.
The district says it has 1,116 pupils it cannot house
The high school holds 2,034.5 against a capacity of 1,661 and is projected 541 over by 2030-31, with 1,062 new housing units expected to add about 195 pupils.
A $228 million referendum is being prepared, with little state help
$227,974,175 for a reconfiguration of every school level, of which state debt service aid is estimated at $20,688,694, about 9 percent. The household cost is put at $1,129.94 a year on the average home over 25 years.
The auditors found two material weaknesses
$1,692,180 spent on technology without the lease-purchase financing meant to fund it, and a payroll account whose reconciliation was out by $1,215,625, including about $174,000 of staff withholdings not remitted to the state.
Livingston's finances, enrolment and building plans
A $152,572,332 general fund, $2,289,709 of special revenue and $5,970,850 of debt service, against $157,541,584 revised for 2025-26.
A $136,638,078 general fund levy, up 6.37 percent, plus $4,483,900 for debt, down 21.6 percent. Net rise 5.18 percent, about $478 a year on the average home.
Including $1,550,000 of extraordinary aid and $7,092,785 of special education categorical aid. About seven percent of the general fund.
Up from 27.97 percent revised for 2025-26. The benefits appropriation rises $8.6 million to $33,455,722.
Against $18,940 actual in 2024-25. Administrative cost per pupil is $1,953.
Broadly flat on 6,362 a year earlier; the district projects 6,508 for October 2026. Pupils in private placements rise from 53 to 78.
Four posts were created in the same resolution. The March budget presentation had listed 40 reductions; kindergarten aides and a nurse were restored in April.
Against 463 unhoused pupils today. The high school alone is 373.5 above its 1,661 capacity, and the demographer counts seven approved housing developments, the largest 300 units, plus two more unapproved.
$154,009,375 of new construction, $60,849,100 of renovation and $13,115,700 of site work, before state aid estimated at 9.1 percent.
Down from $9,778,014 audited at June 2024 and $6,888,443 at June 2025, after withdrawals of $5,158,831 and $1,537,673.
Major projects
The $228 million facilities referendum
Option chosen; no vote date setThe district's demographer counts 1,116 pupils it cannot house. In June 2026 the board's architect presented two options and the five members agreed unanimously, by consensus rather than resolution, to proceed with the first: a total project cost of $227,974,175 that would put a pre-kindergarten centre at Mount Pleasant Elementary, take elementary schools to grade five, move grade six into Heritage Middle School, and add high school athletic fields, a central bus depot, renovations at the newly purchased Monmouth Court property and security and technology upgrades. The two largest lines are $65.6 million at Heritage Middle School and $79.3 million at the high school. State debt service aid is estimated at $20,688,694, about nine percent. The household cost is put at $1,129.94 a year on the average home assessed at $729,272 over 25 years at 4.15 percent, or $1,015.02 over 30. A vote date of April 20, 2027 appeared in the June material and was absent from the August version; the board's goals for the year say only that it will choose a date this school year or early in the next, and an April date depends on a separate decision to move the board election.
- Demographic study projects enrolment growth and unhoused pupils
- Architect presents two options, at $228 million and $230 to $237 million
- Board agrees by consensus to proceed with option one
- Financial adviser presents preliminary financing and household cost
- Updated architect drawings presented; the April 2027 date is no longer in the timetable
Funding
Bond issue repaid by Livingston taxpayers, with state debt service aid estimated at $20,688,694 of the $227,974,175 total
The architect told the board that site improvements such as the turf field and bus depot may attract no state aid at all, and the household figures assume none.
Balancing the 2026-27 budget
Reductions in effect from July 2026The superintendent told the board in February that flat state aid left a $5 million gap, driven by medical and prescription benefits, out-of-district tuition and energy costs against a two percent levy cap, and that staffing levels and class sizes were already in question. The insurance quote moved from 25 percent to 33 percent and finally 26 percent for the private plan year, and the district was told other carriers were not interested in quoting because of its claims history. The tentative budget adopted in March used a $5,611,079 health care waiver to exceed the cap, raised the technology fee from $30 to $35, and cut 40 positions; the final budget in April restored the kindergarten aides after a better prescription renewal; and in May the board abolished 37 posts and created four. It also tabled and then approved a switch to a shared health insurance fund worth about $600,000.
- Superintendent discloses a $5 million gap
- Tentative budget adopted with 40 reductions
- Final budget adopted; kindergarten aides restored
- 37 posts abolished, four created; insurance switch tabled
- Insurance fund membership approved from July 1
Funding
A $136,638,078 general fund tax levy, $11,033,132 of state aid, $977,890 of appropriated fund balance and a $1,537,673 capital reserve withdrawal
The capital reserve withdrawal is stated as $1,537,673 in the resolution and totals $1,573,673 in its own itemised table, a discrepancy carried through both the tentative and final budgets.
A new superintendent and three new principals
In post since July 2026The district ran a superintendent search through the autumn of 2025: a survey answered by 1,620 pupils, 426 staff and 1,487 parents and residents, whose dominant theme was overcrowding; the post advertised on November 5 with applications closing November 26; 29 applicants; screening interviews in December and January; and the appointment of Mark Stern on January 20, 2026 for a five-year term from July 1, 2026, succeeding Daniel Fishbein, who had served as interim superintendent since 2024 and ran the search for his successor. In April the principals of Burnet Hill, Hillside and Riker Hill resigned effective June 30, and in June the board appointed their successors along with a new assistant principal at the high school, from 114 applications.
- Search survey results presented, with overcrowding the leading concern
- Mark Stern appointed superintendent for 2026 to 2031
- Three elementary principals resign effective June 30
- Three new principals and an assistant principal appointed
Funding
Operating budget; the new principals' salaries range from $141,712 to $153,267
The superintendent's contract terms are not stated in the resolution appointing him.
Restructuring gifted and talented provision
In effect from September 2026All four gifted and talented teaching positions were cut in the 2026-27 budget and abolished in May. The district says the programme continues in a different form, delivered by its 24 intervention and enrichment specialists and, at Heritage Middle School, through the media specialist in the media centre. Three mathematics teachers and three technology coaches went in the same round, and middle school support staff fell from three to two at one school and from 4.5 to 3.5 at the other. The context is eighth-grade mathematics proficiency of 49 percent against 77 to 88 percent in neighbouring grades, and a new sixth-grade mathematics laboratory period that takes the place of a semester of world language.
- All four gifted and talented posts appear in the tentative budget's reductions
- Superintendent says the programme will be restructured, not discontinued
- The four posts formally abolished effective July 1
Funding
Savings within the 2026-27 operating budget; no separate figure is attached to the restructuring
A member of the public objected at the budget hearing to displacing the dedicated instructors.
Recent news
This overview is built from the agendas, approved minutes and board presentations Livingston publishes for every meeting from September 9, 2025 to September 29, 2026 - 92 documents in all - together with three state filings for district code 2730: 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 policies on student use of internet-enabled devices and on generative artificial intelligence.
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