District overview
Trenton Public School District
A $535 million district where local taxes pay under 5 percent of the bill, one dollar in seven follows a child to a charter school, and the board has only just become fully elected.
Who decides in Trenton, and where does the money actually go?
Trenton Public School District teaches about 16,600 pupils on roll across 25 schools, from the Trenton Central High School campus and Capital City High School down through four intermediate schools and a dozen elementary schools, and it pays for roughly 2,000 more children in contracted preschool places. Its finances are unlike a typical New Jersey district: of the $535,321,920 it plans to spend in 2026-27, the local tax levy is $26,254,671, under 5 percent, while state sources supply $427,640,852. A second feature shapes everything else - $76,512,681 of that budget, better than one dollar in seven, is transferred to charter schools, up from $69,000,157 actually paid in 2024-25, when the audited accounts record 3,620 Trenton pupils in nine charter schools. Governance changed recently and materially: Trenton was a Type I district whose board the mayor appointed until a 2022 city referendum converted it to Type II, and the members sworn in on January 6, 2026 made it, in a board member's words that night, the first time the district has had a fully elected board. Nine members now serve three-year terms, three seats at a time on the November general-election ballot, and capital borrowing needs a public referendum rather than a board of school estimate. The board meets on Monday evenings at 5:30 at 108 North Clinton Avenue, streams and posts its meetings on its own Trenton TV channel, and publishes agendas the Friday before and full packets afterwards.
Local taxes are a rounding error in this budget
$26,254,671 of local levy against $427,640,852 from state sources in a $535,321,920 budget for 2026-27. The levy has moved only from $25,235,170 in 2024-25.
More than a seventh of the budget follows children to charter schools
$76,512,681 budgeted for transfer to charter schools in 2026-27, after $69,000,157 actually paid in 2024-25 for 3,620 pupils in nine charters.
The board became fully elected only in January 2026
A 2022 city referendum moved Trenton from Type I, with a mayor-appointed board, to Type II; nine members now serve three-year terms with three seats up each November.
Per-pupil cost has risen by more than a quarter in two years
Total budgetary comparative cost per pupil of $26,675 for 2026-27 against $21,048 actual in 2024-25.
Attendance is a districtwide condition, not a handful of cases
Chronic absenteeism of 43 percent in 2024-25 against 34 percent the year before, and corrective action plans approved for all 27 schools in February 2026.
The state has just found the district's instruction out of compliance
Accountability scores reported to the board on September 28, 2026 were 65 percent on instruction and programme against an 80 percent threshold, 81 percent on personnel, and 95 to 100 percent on finance, governance and operations, requiring a district improvement plan by November 7.
Trenton's finances, enrolment and the 2026-27 budget
A $481,459,736 general fund plus $53,862,184 of special revenue. The board adopted it on April 27, 2026 as one item inside its consent agenda.
Up from $25,739,874 revised for 2025-26 and $25,235,170 actual in 2024-25. Under 5 percent of what the district spends.
Including $391,886,403 of equalization aid and $19,269,613 of categorical special-education aid.
Against $69,000,157 actually paid in 2024-25 for 3,620 pupils in nine charter schools, as the audited report records.
New Jersey's standard comparative measure, against $21,048 actual in 2024-25. Compare it only with other New Jersey districts' figures in the same format.
14,548 regular and 2,052.5 special-education full-time places, down from 17,144 a year earlier. A further 2,100 children were in contracted preschool places.
Against 34 percent in 2023-24. Eleventh grade reached 56.1 percent. State rules require a corrective action plan above 10 percent, and the board approved plans for all 27 schools.
Roofs at Hedgepeth-Williams ($125,917), Cadwalader ($185,790), the 9th Grade Academy ($567,600), Dunn Middle School ($636,900) and Grant ($195,800), plus $43,600 of trailer repairs, all but one to the same contractor.
Against an 80 percent threshold. Fiscal management scored 95, governance 100, operations 98 and personnel 81. Reported aloud by the superintendent; no posted document records it.
Across nine charter schools, for which the district paid $69,000,157 in tuition that year.
Major projects
The 2026-27 budget and the charter school bill
Adopted; in effect from July 2026The board sent a tentative $535.3 million budget to the state on March 23, 2026, the county superintendent approved it on April 16, and the board adopted the final version after a public hearing on April 27 as one item inside its consent agenda. The plan raises $26,254,671 locally and takes $427,640,852 from state sources, and transfers $76,512,681 to charter schools, up $7.5 million on what was actually paid two years earlier. Later the same spring the board renewed substitute staffing at up to $15,000,000 and security services at up to $7,500,000, and adopted a resolution telling the state that a 31.9 percent health-premium increase in January 2026, part of a near-74 percent rise over five years, is unsustainable.
- Tentative budget submitted to the state at $535,321,920 with a $26,254,671 levy
- Executive county superintendent approves the budget
- Public hearing and final adoption inside the consent agenda
- Annual appointments, a $15 million substitute contract and a resolution on health-premium relief
- $20 million deposited into capital and maintenance reserves at year end
Funding
State aid of $427,640,852, a local tax levy of $26,254,671 and $53,862,184 of special revenue, mostly federal grants
The minutes' own narrative of the budget presentation misstates the total as $53.8 million; the adopted resolution table is the reliable figure.
New transportation complex
Contract re-awarded in June 2026The board awarded construction of a new transportation complex in April 2026 to H&S Construction and Mechanical at up to $12,950,000, funded by a withdrawal from capital reserve. On June 29 it rescinded that award and re-awarded the work to Newport Construction Corporation at up to $13,037,700, $87,700 more, giving as its reason only that this was necessary 'due to administrative review and/or corrective action', and revised the reserve withdrawal to match. The published record does not say what the review found.
- Bid awarded to H&S Construction and Mechanical at up to $12,950,000
- Award rescinded and given to Newport Construction at up to $13,037,700
Funding
Withdrawal from the district's capital reserve, revised from $12,950,000 to $13,037,700
Both awards are ceilings, not contract prices.
New K-6 campus behind Dunn Middle School
Under construction since July 2026The state's Schools Development Authority is building a campus of about 124,000 square feet for up to 837 pupils on land behind Grace A. Dunn Middle School, housing two new schools: Betty V. Coles Elementary for kindergarten through grade three and Miguel A. Hernandez Intermediate for grades four to six. The board approved those names at its July 28, 2025 meeting and the district reported the groundbreaking in July 2026. Because the state authority funds and manages construction in Trenton, the cost does not run through the district's own capital budget, and the board's own facilities spending in the same period went on emergency roof replacements at five existing schools.
- Board approves the names of the two new schools
- District reports the groundbreaking on the new campus
Funding
New Jersey Schools Development Authority, which funds and manages school construction in Trenton
No district cost figure appears in the board's own record; the authority holds the construction budget.
Attendance corrective action plans for every school
Plans approved February 2026Chronic absenteeism rose from 34 percent of pupils in 2023-24 to 43 percent in 2024-25, with eleventh grade at 56.1 percent. State rules require a corrective action plan wherever 10 percent or more of a school's pupils are chronically absent, and on February 26, 2026 the board approved plans for each of its 27 schools. Students told the board at three separate meetings that a lack of transportation and locked bathrooms were part of why pupils stay away, and the committee that oversees the plans deferred its own reporting from December to January.
- Committee defers attendance plans to January
- Corrective action plans approved for all 27 schools
Funding
Operating budget and federal grant programmes; no separate figure is attached to the plans in the board's record
The plans themselves are named in the resolution but not published as documents.
District improvement plan after the state accountability review
Plan due to the state by November 7, 2026The district completed a review under the state's Quality Single Accountability Continuum during 2025-26. The superintendent reported the results to the board on September 28, 2026: 65 percent on instruction and programme, 81 percent on personnel, 95 percent on fiscal management, 98 percent on operations and 100 percent on governance. Falling below 80 percent in any area obliges the district to write an improvement plan addressing the non-compliant indicators, and he gave the deadline as November 7. Board committee chairs discussed it the same evening. Nothing the district has posted in writing records any of this.
- Superintendent reports the review scores to the board
- Stated deadline for submitting the improvement plan to the state
Funding
No separate funding is identified in the board's record; the plan is a compliance obligation rather than a spending programme
The district's own accountability page carries nothing newer than 2016-17.
Recent news
This overview is built from the district's own posted agendas, approved minutes and full board packets for every meeting from September 29, 2025 to August 31, 2026, from the district's own recordings of nine of those meetings on its Trenton TV channel, and from three state filings for district code 5210: the audited financial report for the year ended June 30, 2025 and the user-friendly budget summaries for 2025-26 and 2026-27. Governance facts were checked against the district's bylaws, the county clerk's certified election results and the district's own board pages.
Get alerts for Trenton Public School District
We read every agenda, packet, and set of minutes, and write up the decisions that affect families — each one linked to the document it came from.
View alerts for this district