Schoolkids, hold your breath: The end of the near is nearly upon us.
Blairstown Elementary School held its last two Board of Education meetings that fell within the 2025–2026 school year. The first was on April 23, the second on May 5, two weeks later.
In the two meetings, the board reviewed a flurry of end-of-year activities and handled one all-important piece of business: the official passage of next school year’s budget.
Blairstown Elementary Ends the Year With Awards and Honors
First, the unequivocally good news.
An earlier start to summer: As many BES families now know, the school didn’t use all of its allotted snow days this year. That means those two days off have now moved to the warmer months as unexpected holidays. To avoid scheduling conflicts with North Warren Regional High School’s graduation, the board agreed to use one of those extra days off to extend Memorial Day Weekend and use the other to end the school year a day early. The last day of school will now be Tuesday, June 16.
Performances galore: The third and fourth graders delivered what Principal Colleen Silvestri deemed a “spectacular” performance on April 1. Students showed off their talents in chorus, the recorder, dance, and fourth-grade band.
…and even more: Speaking of performances, the BES Drama Bears delivered an evening of Broadway-inspired musical entertainment on April 30. Silvestri celebrated the “tremendous success” of the performance.
Thinking outside the box: BES students squared off—or cubed off?—at the Warren County Strategic Thinking Day and Rubik’s Cube Competition on April 10. Two BES students placed in the top three slots in the novice division, which involves solving one side of a Rubiks cube. The laurel wreath goes to BES student A.J. Coronato, who was crowned the Warren County Champion in the mastery’s division, solving an entire cube.
Home of an Unsung Hero: Principal Silvestri honored BES student Teddy Russo with the Unsung Hero Award, which recognizes the quiet contributions of students who give back to their communities without fanfare. Silvestri honored Teddy for his steadfast emotional intelligence and thoughtfulness, concluding: “Thank you, Teddy for your quiet leadership and for being a silent but powerful example for your classmates.”
Giving back: The BES Climate and Culture Committee, with the guidance of Mrs. Pelosi, helped collect and donate 1,760 books to the Bridge of Books Foundation, a nonprofit that helps make books accessible to children in underserved communities.
One last win: Teacher Tammy Messina shared that on April 30, BES shone in the Battle of the Books competition in Washington. Not only did BES show up with the largest number of teams, but it placed well: The sixth grade won third place, while the fifth grade won first.
Next Year’s Budget Finalized With Few Surprises
The bulk of the May 5 meeting focused on passing Blairstown Elementary’s budget for next school year. As outlined in March’s presentation of the preliminary budget, years of state and federal budget cuts have left the school with few financial options.
The numbers tell the story. Every year, the standard percentage that a school is allowed to raise the tax levy is 2%. For BES, that amounts to $174,000. Yet the cost of employee benefits, an expense outside the district’s control, has increased $288,000 this year alone. With that single line item, the school’s expenditures are already 65% higher than what its tax revenue increases can cover—and that doesn’t address other rising costs, including tuition for out-of-district placements, charter-school attendance, transportation, and maintenance.
Not much has changed from the preliminary budget presented in March. At heart, it’s a straightforward story shared by many rural districts in NJ this year: rising required costs and decreasing revenues.
According to Business Administrator Kathleen Kane, the tax levy increase is “really survival for the district this year.”
Next year’s budget calls for a 6.69% increase in the tax levy, a percentage increase permitted due to adjustments for rising health care costs and student enrollment, plus a small amount of banked cap (unused taxing authority from a previous year).
For the average Blairstown homeowner, with property assessed at about $293,000 for tax purposes, that means another $182 in property taxes annually. For the average Hardwick homeowner, with property assessed at about $245,000, that’s another $230 annually. The numbers come courtesy of state taxing formulae.
Board President Jeremy Cook and Finance Committee members David Scherrle and Nathan Molteni emphasized that the board had examined every option for saving funds, down to exploring possibilities for changing utility providers if it would save money. Kane confirmed that the board had been thorough in its financial examinations. But in the end, math is math.
From one perspective, though, the new budget is still a win: It allows the school to retain all of its programs and hire two teachers to replace three teachers that retired this year. Silvestri explained that this year will see an especially large graduating class, with next scool year requiring one fewer teacher to keep class sizes roughly the same.
Looking Ahead: Celebrating the Graduates
And so ended the last board meeting of the formal school year.
Cook acknowledged that while the school had seen several academic awards and achievements, it didn’t neglect a whole-child view either, with attention paid to character, kindness, and integrity.
Blairstown will celebrate its sixth-grade graduation on Monday, June 15 at 6 p.m. The last day of school will fall on Tuesday, June 16.
Chip O'Chang is an educator, fiction writer, and lifelong resident of New Jersey. He has also written for My Life Publications and NJ Indy. He lives in the NJ Skylands with his partner, two cats, and and a bearded dragon.
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
- Chip O'Chang, Contributing Writerhttps://ridgeviewecho.com/author/chip-ochang-contributing-writer/
