Tag: #middletown

Seven parents have filed a Petition of Appeal with the New Jersey Commissioner of Education challenging Middletown Township Board of Education’s plan to close three schools: Leonardo Elementary School, Navesink Elementary School, and Bayshore Middle School.¹

Beyond the immediate dispute, the filing raises broader transparency and accountability questions in local school governance, particularly regarding reliance on outside consultants and the availability of supporting documentation when major restructuring decisions advance.

The filing asks the Commissioner to void the board’s closure resolution and order interim relief, including directing the district to keep the schools open through the 2026–27 school year, along with additional disclosure and oversight measures.²

Procedurally, the filing begins an administrative appeal with the Commissioner of Education, who has authority to resolve disputes arising under New Jersey’s school laws. The Commissioner may decide the matter directly or refer it to the Office of Administrative Law for a hearing before an administrative law judge. The petition states the parents are seeking administrative review through the Department of Education and, “if necessary,” judicial review in the appellate courts.³

This is not the first time the school district’s operations have been challenged in court in connection with keeping schools open.

New Jersey has hundreds of public school districts. Almost none hire lobbyists.

State disclosure records show more than 500 public school districts operate across New Jersey. Only two appear in state lobbying disclosure records. Middletown is one of them.

The distinction stands out even more today. The district is facing a significant budget shortfall and planning to close schools to address it. That contrast raises a basic accountability question: when a public school district hires a lobbying firm, what decisions is it trying to influence, and what did students and taxpayers receive in return?

In Middletown, the public record reveals two disclosure systems that are usually examined separately: campaign-finance filings from the November 2025 Board of Education election and New Jersey lobbying disclosures filed by a Trenton-based government affairs firm. When those filings are read side by side, they show overlapping names, vendors, and timing — a pattern similar to one identified in our prior research on how campaign spending and political media intersect in Monmouth County.

They also raise several unanswered questions about how the district engaged a lobbying firm.

The most direct document-based link is this: CLB Partners LLC reported “Middletown Township Board of Education” as a represented entity on a Form L1-A annual lobbying report, listing $15,000 in receipts and identifying the entity’s business type as “School board.”¹

Separately, the joint candidates committee that backed three school-board candidates in 2025 reported a donor whose employer was listed as CLB Partners.²

Our review also identified at least one contribution that does not appear in the candidate committee’s campaign finance filings required under New Jersey election law. It is one of several contributions that point to a broader network of relationships surrounding the board, where public money, lobbying activity, and local elections intersect.

On March 2, 2026, the Middletown Township Committee met for a workshop session at the municipal building on One Kings Highway, where residents used public comment to press local officials to get involved in the Middletown school district’s plans to close schools.

The most pointed exchange came from resident Bernard Daus, who urged Mayor Tony Perry to step in as the district considers closing three schools, calling it an “imminent threat” to the community and arguing that closures would “fracture” Middletown’s neighborhoods.