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District overview

Ridgewood Public School District

How Ridgewood's schools are paid for, who decides, and what is under way right now.

Where does the money come from?

Almost entirely local property tax, under a 2 percent yearly cap

Ridgewood runs about 5,400 students in ten schools on roughly $135 million a year, and about $9 of every $10 comes from Ridgewood property taxes. New Jersey classes Ridgewood in District Factor Group J, the group with the lowest share of economically disadvantaged pupils, and the state funding formula sends a wealthy district like this very little: state aid was $10.07 million in 2025-26, less than 8 percent of the budget, and it fell again for 2026-27. At the same time state law caps how much the tax levy can rise each year at 2 percent, with narrow exceptions. That is the thing to understand first. When a cost the district does not control jumps, as employee health premiums did by about $6.2 million between 2024-25 and 2026-27, the cap means the shortfall has to come out of services. The 2026-27 budget is exactly that story: the board used the 2 percent plus 1.78 percentage points of the allowable health-benefits adjustment, then closed the rest of the gap by consolidating positions, drawing on reserves, raising pre-kindergarten tuition and removing some courtesy bus routes.

Tax levy: $111.7 million of a $135.6 million general fund

The adopted 2026-27 general-fund levy is $111,687,878, up from $107,392,191 in 2025-26. Adding debt repayment, taxes to be raised total $114,713,852 of a $141,175,740 all-funds budget. The district presented the school tax increase as 3.78 percent, about $500 a year on a home assessed at $715,000; a board member recorded it as about 4 percent above last year's levy.

State aid: $10.07 million, and falling

2025-26 state aid totalled $10,070,977, down from $10,289,667 revised for 2024-25, with categorical special education aid dropping from $6,221,390 to $5,378,965. The 2026-27 budget presentation says plainly that state aid is declining for the second year in a row.

Health benefits are the cost driver, and the district left the state plan

Employee benefits are $22,962,795 of the 2026-27 general fund, 17.1 percent. Premiums rose about $6.2 million between 2024-25 and 2026-27, roughly $3 million of that in the current year. On November 17, 2025 the board moved medical and prescription coverage out of the State Educational Health Benefits Program to Aetna/CVS from January 1, 2026, and moved dental to Aetna in December for an estimated $468,062 of bundling savings.

Spending per pupil: $21,299, and 76 percent of the budget is staff

Total budgetary comparative cost per pupil for 2025-26 is $21,299, up from $20,449 revised for 2024-25 and $18,650 actually spent in 2023-24. Classroom instruction accounts for $12,659 of that. The 2026-27 presentation says over 76 percent of the budget goes to the staff who teach students.

None of this means Ridgewood is poorly funded or badly run. It still spends over $21,000 per student, it kept every course and language and every extracurricular programme intact through a difficult budget, and it used only 3.78 percent of a 7.35 percent allowable levy increase. The squeeze is at the margin, and it is where families felt it: bus routes, class sizes in the secondary schools, and the pace of a new reading programme.

Where the district stands

2026-27 general fund budgetverified
135,550,209 USD

Total expenditures across all funds are $141,175,740, including $2,462,081 special revenue and $3,163,450 debt service.

General fund tax levy, 2026-27verified
111,687,878 USD

Up from $107,392,191 in 2025-26. With debt service, taxes to be raised total $114,713,852.

School tax levy increase, 2026-27verified
3.78 percent

The 2 percent standard increase plus 1.78 of the 2.80 percentage points available for health benefits, out of a total 7.35 percent the district says it was allowed to raise.

Estimated yearly tax increase on a home assessed at $715,000verified
499.78 USD

About $41.65 a month, on the district's stated average assessed home value.

State aid, 2025-26verified
10,070,977 USD

Down from $10,289,667 revised for 2024-25. Categorical special education aid fell from $6,221,390 to $5,378,965.

Budgetary spending per pupil, 2025-26verified
21,299 USD

Current expense excluding tuition paid out, transport and judgments. Up from $20,449 revised for 2024-25 and $18,650 actually spent in 2023-24; $12,659 of it is classroom instruction.

Employee benefits, 2026-27verified
22,962,795 USD

17.1 percent of the general fund. Premiums rose about $6.2 million between 2024-25 and 2026-27, roughly $3 million of it in the current year.

Students enrolled, May 2026verified
5,409 students

Across ten schools. The 2026-27 budget presentation estimated 5,429 for 2025-26, and NCES reports 5,480 for the 2025-26 directory year.

Subscription bus fee per student, 2026-27verified
1,595 USD

Non-refundable, due July 31, 2026, for a seat on an existing route. Replaces courtesy busing that was free.

Students with IEPs passing state English, 2025verified
43 percent

Against 84 percent for the district's stable cohort overall and 53 percent statewide. In mathematics the figures are 36 percent for students with IEPs against 80 percent districtwide.

Special education separate placementsverified
8.3 percent

The district names this an area for growth against a state target of 6.5 percent or lower.

Years since the student device policy was adoptedcontext
14 years

Policy 2363, the rule on student phones and personal electronic devices, carries an adoption date of September 10, 2012. Calculated against September 2026, so this is context rather than a reported figure. The district has no published artificial-intelligence policy.

Elected board membersverified
5 members

Four of the five are named in a School Ethics Complaint that forced the board to invoke the Doctrine of Necessity in January 2026 to pay related legal invoices.

Board agendas and minutes on this pageverified
62 documents

Covering 20 board meetings and 10 joint fields working group meetings between October 2025 and September 2026. Minutes are missing for four of those meetings.

Major projects

Ending some courtesy busing and starting paid subscription busing

In force for 2026-27; the district says a November ballot question could reverse it

To help close the 2026-27 budget gap the board redrew which walking routes it calls hazardous and stopped courtesy busing on others, then created a paid alternative. A seat on an existing route costs a non-refundable $1,595 per student, first come first served, with priority for families who had just lost courtesy service. Parents told the board the affected walks cross the Ho-Ho-Kus railway tracks or Glen Avenue without crossing guards, and one described a 1.4-mile walk to Ridge Elementary through downtown; the superintendent confirmed that families beyond Route 17 keep busing through high school.

Next: The district says courtesy busing may be reinstated if a November ballot question passes; no board resolution placing that question on the ballot appears in the collected record.
  1. Budget presentation lists removal of some courtesy busing as a tax-levy relief strategy and a November ballot question
  2. Superintendent confirms families beyond Route 17 keep busing and describes subscription busing as still being worked out
  3. Board authorises the subscription busing programme at $1,595 per student, payable by July 31
  4. About 50 residents object to the hazardous-route changes; revised Regulation 8600 and new Policy and Regulation 8611 sent back to committee
  5. First reading of the subscription busing policy and regulation, which establish the ability to offer the service but not the routes

Funding

Transportation falls to $5,266,260, 3.9 percent of the 2026-27 general fund, reflecting the projected reduction in courtesy busing; subscription fees of $1,595 per student offset part of the cost.

Building a three-to-five year capital plan

Assessment complete, project list being prioritised

Ridge Elementary's heating has been a known problem since a 2015 facilities assessment and a February 2019 architect's report, and in January 2026 a parent told the board that half a class sat in coats. The board's first 2026 goal is to review a new comprehensive facilities assessment with its architect and engineer and produce a funded three-to-five year plan. Work already contracted includes window replacements at the Glen School and Ridge Elementary, HVAC units at Ridge, gymnasium HVAC at Hawes, and furnace and faculty-room reconstruction at Glen and Ridge.

Next: The 2026-27 strategic plan asks principals to turn the facilities assessment into a master plan for each site; no bond amount, project list or referendum date has been published.
  1. Window replacement contract awarded for the Glen School and Ridge Elementary; all HVAC units reported installed at Ridge
  2. Board adopts a 2026 goal to prioritise capital needs into a three-to-five year funded plan; parent reports cold classrooms at Ridge
  3. Facilities committee reviews the 2025 facilities assessment project by project; George Washington locker replacement costed at $510,000 over two years
  4. 2026-27 budget lists $1,740,000 of capital work: retaining walls at Willard and Ridge, Orchard back steps, elementary classroom rehabilitation, Travell air conditioning, high school tennis courts, George Washington basement bathroom
  5. Hawes gymnasium HVAC upgrade awarded to Reiner Group for $387,000, total not to exceed $417,960
  6. Award of bond counsel services proposed for the capital programme

Funding

Capital projects are $2,038,562 of the 2026-27 general fund, 1.5 percent, plus capital and maintenance reserve withdrawals; the 2026-27 list totals $1,740,000. Bond counsel was put out to tender in 2026 for a future borrowing programme.

New K-5 reading curriculum and a new enrichment programme

Enrichment programme launched; reading curriculum funded for K-2 only

Two curriculum changes ran together through 2026. The district chose a new structured-literacy reading and writing programme for kindergarten through grade 5 after a multi-year review, but the 2026-27 budget funds only the K-2 rollout and states that grades 3 to 5 wait until 2027-28. Separately it launched the Ridgewood Enrichment Program for academically advanced elementary students, identified through a tiered matrix using assessments at grades 3 and 5, with parents pressing on how twice-exceptional children will be found when the matrix leans on computer-based testing.

Next: Grades 3 to 5 transition to the new literacy programme in 2027-28; the middle school OpenSciEd science programme continues a three-year phase-in.
  1. State test analysis shows grade 5 to 6 English declines across three cohorts and names a new K-5 programme under review
  2. Ridgewood Enrichment Program presented; parents question the identification matrix
  3. Budget funds the K-2 literacy transition and delays grades 3 to 5 to 2027-28
  4. Five-year science curriculum and programme review presented alongside the final district goal report
  5. State of the Schools lists continued enrichment implementation with a focus on Tier II mathematics among 2026-27 action items

Funding

Instruction is $65,825,318 of the 2026-27 general fund, 49 percent. An elementary principal asked the board at the March 16, 2026 hearing to fund the language arts change in full; the budget funded K-2.

Flood mitigation at the high school fields

Contingency planning under way; a $196,760 repair proposed

The Ridgewood High School fields flood repeatedly. Rather than bid a repair after each storm, the district bought flood insurance and pre-awarded a repair contractor, and made a written flood contingency plan naming alternative fields one of its five 2026 board goals. In August 2026 Ridgewood Junior Football reported three fields unavailable days before its season opened. Residents have separately and repeatedly objected to any artificial turf at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School field on heat, chemical and groundwater grounds; the superintendent said in March 2026 that the budget contains no turf proposal.

Next: The FieldTurf remediation award was on the September 28, 2026 agenda; minutes recording the vote are not yet published. Soil remediation continues at the Schedler property.
  1. Board reports a meeting with high school neighbours on fields, flooding and the Beverly Road roundabout
  2. Board adopts a flood-mitigation goal; one member votes against it and files questions on PFAS, soil testing and storm-water rules for a possible turf field
  3. Village and board adopt a shared fields and recreational facility policy, posted on both websites
  4. Three fields unavailable because of flooding days before the junior football season; alternatives arranged
  5. Co-operative contract with FieldTurf USA proposed to remediate the high school and Stevens Stadium surfaces, not to exceed $196,760

Funding

Plant and property is $13,045,183 of the 2026-27 general fund, 9.7 percent. The proposed FieldTurf remediation of $196,760 is charged to a maintenance account, and youth sports clubs pledged $264,000 of donations in September 2026.

Local elections & school board members

Elections & votes

Board electionScheduled

Ridgewood Board of Education election, November 3, 2026

Village of Ridgewood

Ridgewood elects its board members at the November general election. New Jersey's 2026 general election is November 3, 2026. A board member announced on May 4, 2026 that the filing deadline for candidate applications was the end of July 2026. Two seats held by members whose terms run to 12/31/2026 are due to be filled; no certified candidate list appears in any collected district record.

Official source · verified Sep 30, 2026

Board electionPassed

Ridgewood Board of Education election, one three-year seat

Village of Ridgewood

One three-year seat was on the ballot. Board president Sheila Brogan was the only candidate recorded and was returned with 7,136 votes; she was sworn in at the January 5, 2026 reorganization meeting for a term running 01/01/2026 to 12/31/2028.

Official source · verified Sep 30, 2026

Public voteProposed

Proposed November 2026 ballot questions on courtesy busing and elementary school resource officers

Village of Ridgewood

The district's 2026-27 budget presentation lists courtesy busing and elementary school resource officers as ballot questions, described as community decisions and voter mandates, and states that courtesy busing removed from the 2026-27 budget may be reinstated if it passes via the November ballot question. No board resolution placing either question on the ballot appears in any collected document, so this remains a proposal rather than a certified question.

Official source · verified Sep 30, 2026

School board members

Recent news

Flooding keeps closing the high school fields; $196,760 repair proposedSep 28, 2026Superintendent is up for a new five-year contract through 2031Sep 28, 2026Two-thirds of parents want less screen time; the device rule dates from 2012Sep 14, 2026

Built from documents collected each week from the Ridgewood Public Schools document library, the same library the district's own website reads. www.rpsnj.us answers HTTP 406 to automated requests and an ISP-proxied browser is served a bot-challenge page, so the collector calls the Apptegy/Thrillshare document API directly and the trusted downloader fetches each file from files-backend.assets.thrillshare.com. Every figure on this page comes from a document stored from those sources.

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