DUI Lawyers in Bordentown, NJ

BORDENTOWN, NJ – Local developer Kevin Johnson, known locally for the Team 85 complex and other projects along Route 130, is offering the Bordentown Regional School District $1 million to help close the budget gap. But, in turn, he is asking the Township to approve two of his proposed projects that he says will benefit the community.

As previously reported by TAPinto, the District is facing a shortfall of approximately $1 million that has led to the creation of the ONEBordentown plan that would significantly realign the school district. On March 18, Interim Superintendent Edward J. Forsthoffer III presented the tentative 2025-26 budget that would cut roughly 46 administrative, teaching and support staff positions, reduces Basic Skills Instruction, eliminates middle school sports, the YMCA trip and the 7th grade environmental education program, forgoes the purchase of two 54-passenger buses intended to replenish the school district’s fleet, reduces the amount of summer curriculum writing, lowers the amount of summer extra pay and reduces maintenance, electrical and plumbing expenses.

Johnson says that he has a proposal to stop these cuts, and infuse a large sum of money into the school district.

According to Johnson's letter to the Bordentown Township governing body, obtained and reviewed by TAPinto, Johnson says that he has been approached by members of the community to provide before-and after-school care for children that could be on the chopping block. Even though the school district consists of Bordentown Township, Bordentown City, and Fieldsboro, Johnson only addressed the proposal to the elected leaders of the Township.

In the four-page letter, Johnson criticizes the actions of the Bordentown Township elected officials and administrator.

“The maintaining of the population of the school system and planned growth is a balancing act, and the administration has guided the Township not just into no growth of the student population, but it is experiencing a reduction of school-aged children,” wrote Johnson. “This has jeopardized our education systems and crushed our educators.”

“Why? Because the administrator cannot balance the equities or foresee the consequences of his actions,” added Johnson who further criticized officials by writing, “you want to protect your ‘Highway Commercial’ zoning, but there has been no true commercial development, the township is littered with motels and dilapidated properties. Then you have wrongly attempted to satisfy your 4th round COAH obligation by wrongfully extending the deed restrictions in violation of your own agreement, losing any potential rates from such development."

The financial infusion into the school district, however, would come if the Township agreed to the approval of two developments as laid out in Johnson's letter to the Township.

“So, I offer a solution to protect our students, teachers, and the taxpayers of our community. If the Township is willing to work together to better the community by helping to bring the projects to the Committee on February 24, 2025 to fruition, I will agree to make a one-time donation of $500,000 for each project. With a total aggregate of One Million Dollars 00/100 ($1,000,000.00) to fund the Bordentown School district budget deficiency for the next two (2) years."

Johnson refers to two buildings in the letter that had been proposed to the Township Committee, but his letter did not provide specifics. The February 24, 2025 Bordentown Township Committee meeting agenda indicated a presentation regarding a “request for consideration of zoning changes to allow for residential development in the Highway Commercial Zone.”

According to the minutes of the February 24, 2025 Township Committee meeting, David Silber, an attorney representing K Johnson Enterprises, gave a presentation requesting consideration of zoning changes to allow for residential development in the Highway Commercial Zone.

TAPinto obtained the presentation by K Johnson Enterprises which provides depictions of proposed development along Route 130. In the proposal, K Johnson Enterprises would expand its Team 85 Campus by adding two additional developments to its portfolio.

First, Bordentown Professional Plaza on Route 130, which K Johnson Enterprises says is 35,000 square feet of office space that is currently 50 percent vacant. They propose to redevelop this site into 78 “Stacked Townhouses” – at a breakdown of 66 market rate townhomes and 12 affordable townhomes.

Second, the developer proposes an expansion to the Team Campus property by converting the currently approved 48,000 sq. ft. office building to 160 units of 55+ apartments – that would be a breakdown of 136 market-rate apartments and 24 affordable townhomes.

K Johnson Enterprises says that it has invested more than $200 million into Bordentown Township and further expansion of the Team Campus would provide tax ratables. The company contends that approval of these plans would “allow the community to align with the current market conditions and fulfill a portion of the COAH obligations of the Township.”

When asked for a response to Johnson's letter, Bordentown Township told TAPinto that their legal team has responded directly to it. However, they did not wish to provide public comment.

There is a possible alternative to taking the $1 million in funds from Johnson, however.

The School District has applied for a new state initiative within the New Jersey Department of Education to obtain $1 million “to bring the district to what is deemed an ‘adequate level’ in areas such as educational opportunities and infrastructure.” The application, if approved by the New Jersey Department of Education, would also almost certainly raise property taxes an additional amount than already proposed for many district taxpayers, Forsthoffer has said.

It is unclear if the injection of funding offered by Johnson would allow for the ONEBordentown plan to be abandoned.

The Board of Education is expected to vote on the final school budget on May 7. For information about upcoming School Board meetings, visit https://www.bordentown.k12.nj.us/.

A Burlington County school district facing a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall plans to eliminate nearly 50 teaching and staff positions to stay afloat.

Student protests and widespread anger from parents and teachers erupted in Bordentown Regional School District last month after the board of education approved its tentative $53.5 million budget for the 2025-26 school year.

Several elementary and pre-K teaching positions, as well as special education and counseling jobs, will be cut under the new budget plan. The district will also remove two administrative positions, making its administration the smallest it’s been in more than two decades.

“The plan that I introduced was horrific,” Interim Superintendent Edward J. Forsthoffer III said Thursday. “We need to eliminate four dozen faculty and staff members. This results in increased class sizes across the board and decreases in basic skills instruction.”

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With just two weeks left to finalize the budget last month, Forsthoffer returned to the district as interim superintendent after the previous superintendent resigned.

The board was grappling with an $8 million deficit at the time and needed to introduce a plan to close the gap, he said.

Major costs, including salaries and benefits for staff members, have increased, district officials said. That forced the district to make tough decisions.

More students are also attending out-of-district schools, which Bordentown must pay for and factor into its costs, officials said.

“Unfortunately, where we are is not a surprise and there was not much we could do to prevent it,” Forsthoffer said.

Bordentown Regional School District has five schools and about 2,200 students. It serves students in Fieldsboro, Bordentown City and Bordentown Township.

Though enrollment has decreased by more than 150 students over the past four years, the number of students requiring special education services has skyrocketed, also driving up costs.

This is the first time in since enrollment has dropped that the district is reducing its staff, according to Forsthoffer.

Along with the staff cuts, Bordentown plans to eliminate middle school sports, remove two school buses and cut some maintenance expenses to save $100,000 at each of its five schools.

After Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled his $12.1 billion school funding plan for fiscal year 2026, the state Department of Education released preliminary state aid figures for the state’s nearly 600 districts in February.

This year, Murphy administration has capped state aid increases for school districts at 6% and limited cuts to 3% or less in major funding categories.

Bordentown’s state aid dropped by about $8,000 to $8.2 million in the proposed budget. According to state figures, the district’s budget is “below adequacy,” meaning it should be spending more to ensure students receive a thorough and efficient education.

However, without an increase in state aid, there’s no way to close the gap without staff cuts, the superintendent said.

Some school districts across New Jersey have taken desperate measures to make up for years of underfunding and deficits. State school aid has long been a contentious issue, with many districts blaming New Jersey’s school funding formula — fully implemented for the first time last year — for their budget troubles.

At its April 9 meeting, the Bordentown Board of Education approved a resolution to ask the state education commissioner for permission to exceed its spending cap by up to $1 million for the 2025-26 school year.

If approved, the district could raise property taxes and receive more aid, helping it move closer to proper funding levels. The money would then be used to restore some teaching and staff positions that were eliminated, school officials said.

As of Thursday, the district’s request has not been decided on yet, Forsthoffer said. He said he hopes the request will be approved in May when the district’s final budget is due.

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Nyah Marshall may be reached at nmarshall@njadvancemedia.com