Belleville School District Earns Association Award for Fiscal Reporting

BELLEVILLE – So diligent and accurate was the Belleville School District with reporting its finances to the state in June that it received an award of excellence for the second consecutive year.

“It is the consensus of the review team to award the Certificate of Excellence,” the Association of School Business Officials noted in presenting the award. “The District is to be commended for its efforts.”

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The award is further testament of the district’s accountability and fiscal management, and signals the fact that the Belleville schools continue to move further and further away from where they were financially 10 years ago.

In 2014, the school district was operating at a deep deficit, necessitating a $4.2 million loan from the state Department of Education. The loan triggered the assignment of a monitor from the state.

A subsequent state investigation into the district’s finances revealed dozens of audit concerns.

A new Superintendent of Schools was hired in Belleville in 2015, and Matthew Paladino became district business administrator and Board of Education secretary the following year, marking key turning points for the district.

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By 2017, the district showed marked improvement in the state’s Quality Single Accountability Continuum that measures a school district’s instruction and programs, fiscal management, governance, operations and personnel. As of 2023, the district was earning an overall “high performing” rating from the state, earning 100% success in three of the categories.

“We’re now in very good financial shape,” Paladino said. “Getting the district out of a budget deficit to where it is now takes a lot of time and effort. You have to change the whole mindset of everyone in the district and you have to get everybody on board, to adhere to the strict rules of the state.

“It’s not an easy thing to do, but you have to keep stressing the importance to get too where we are now,” he added.

While the school district with a $130-plus million operating budget has remained fiscally vigilant, it has also continued to push forward, often using innovative, cost-effective programs that benefit the district’s 5,200 students in new and different ways.

For example, redistricting helped ease overcrowding in the middle school and the Realizing Individual Student Enrichment (RISE) program has helped boost academics in a district that now boasts a 93% graduation rate.

Maintaining and improving the district’s buildings and recreational spaces has also been paramount while working within fiscal means, Paladino said.

In 2022, the district unveiled the Belleville Indoor Training Facility, a 25,000-square-foot space on Cortlandt Street housed in a converted auto body shop designed for high school athletes, as well as the public. The facility opened with two wrestling rooms, an all-purpose room with hardwood floors and a workout room with exercise equipment ranging from a golf driving simulator to chest presses to rowing machines.

A year earlier, the ribbon was cut on a major renovation of Clearman Field, at Union Avenue and Holmes Street. The field services School No. 8, at 183 Union Ave., during the school day.

Afterward, it is home to some of the school district’s sports programs, as well as open to the entire community based on availability.

In 2017, Belleville voters approved a $48.5 million bond referendum that allowed the district to update the lighting, plumbing, HVAC equipment and more at several schools. The district was also able to use some of the funds to make its schools compliant with accessibility regulations under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Pre-K education has also drastically expanded in the past six years in Belleville, and the addition of the Hornblower Early Education Center on Main Street has been home to more than 250 young students.

Of these and other capital projects, perhaps none has been more popular with students than the 2023 opening of the Buccaneer Bistro. The project transformed what had been the Belleville High School Senior Cafeteria into a new, welcoming space where fresh deli sandwiches, a pizza station, burrito bowls, Chinese food and other delights await hungry students.

“The district is in a good place now, thanks to a lot of hard work by a lot of people,” Paladino said. “Under the leadership of Interim Superintendent of School Nick Perrapato, the Board of Education under President Gabrielle Bennett-Meany and our State Monitor, Tom Egan, we’re already off to another great school year and we’re hoping to continue to build upon the fiscal discipline and strategic execution that we have established.”

Editor's Note: A franchise owner for TAPinto Newark is a paid consultant for the Belleville Public Schools.

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