Independent review of the Town of Boonton (municipal government) and the Town of Boonton School District, Morris County, New Jersey. NOT Boonton Township. Research conducted September 17–18, 2026. School fiscal year: July 1–June 30. Municipal calendar year: January 1–December 31.
How to read this report. Claims are labeled: [DOC] = stated in a cited original document; [CALC] = researcher's arithmetic on cited figures (inputs shown); [INT] = interpretation, marked as such; [LEAD] = inherited from the earlier research session and not yet verified; [GAP] = not found in available online records. "Not found online" is never treated as "withheld" or "denied." Every material factual claim carries a retrievable source and page/section/table. Schedules: schedules/*.csv. Working papers: working/.
[DOC/INT] This is an independent, evidence-based public-records financial review of two legally distinct entities that share one tax base: the Town of Boonton (municipal government, calendar-year) and the Town of Boonton School District (NJDOE district code 0450, July–June fiscal year). Boonton Township — a separate municipality with its own school district (NJDOE 0460, PreK–8, sending its high-school students to Mountain Lakes) — is excluded throughout; several web searches returned Township records, which were identified and excluded.
[DOC] The district serves PreK–12 for Town of Boonton residents and grades 9–12 for Lincoln Park residents under a sending/receiving relationship (FY2023 ACFR transmittal letter; FY2025 ACFR tuition revenue $6,101,102). Its business office is at 434 Lathrop Avenue, Boonton, NJ 07005.
Central questions (from the commissioning prompt): Where does the money go? What drives costs and tax increases? Are controls working? Are resources supporting educational and municipal services? What practical improvements could reduce avoidable costs, strengthen oversight, or address underinvestment?
Boundaries. This is not a certified audit, a forensic examination of every transaction, or an investigation designed to prove wrongdoing. Air conditioning is one facilities issue, not the organizing premise. School and municipal findings are kept separate; county and library allocations are explained without expanding into a county audit. Every Boonton-specific figure inherited from the earlier research session was treated as a lead and independently re-verified; leads that could not be verified are marked as such rather than repeated.
[DOC] The full source register is schedules/source-register.csv (33 entries). Key holdings:
School district (retrieved): FY2026–27 advertised (proposed) budget; FY2025–26 budget presentation (proposed); FY2025–26 User Friendly Budget Summary (NJDOE posting, generated 10/1/2025); FY2025 ACFR (auditor/transmittal 10/16/2025) with Exhibit B-2 extracted; FY2025 AMR (report 10/16/2025); FY2024 AMR (report 10/28/2024); FY2023 ACFR (transmittal 10/30/2023) with Exhibit B-2 extracted. Retrieved: final-adopted FY2026–27 budget (adopted 4/27/2026; NJDOE UFB confirms; see §3.7) and final-adopted FY2025–26 budget (General Fund $37,140,532; Special Revenue $3,533,769; Debt Service $1,425,300; Total $42,099,601; Tax Levy $24,230,476; Apr 28, 2025 minutes excerpt, A-01). Not located: FY2024, FY2022, FY2021 ACFRs; FY2023, FY2022 AMRs (FY2021 AMR and FY2020 ACFR URLs known, not yet fetched; FY2024 ACFR fetch failed this session — retry).
OPRA productions (Oct 2026). The school production (received Oct 15, 2026) contains 122 PDFs plus a tracking file, converted to 123 markdown derivatives. The library production (received Sep 23, 2026) contains 4 PDFs, converted to 4 markdown derivatives. PDFs remain the authoritative originals; MDs are derivatives. Eleven PDFs are image-only scans with no text layer and are UNEXTRACTED: seven school files (A-02 Board Secretary reports June 2026, 40 pp; A-04 Board Secretary reports June 2026, 40 pp, byte-identical duplicate of the A-02 file, same md5; A-04 Treasurer reports June 2026, 9 pp; B-05 CAP, 3 pp; C-15 Lincoln Park signed 2025-2030 agreement, 3 pp; C-15 1999 agreement, 17 pp; E-23 principal employment contracts, 3 pp) and four library files (BHPL BoT Minutes December 2025-January 2026, 17 pp; BHPL Budget 2026, 3 pp; BHPL OPRA Request 9-24-2026, 1 p; Trustee Resolutions, 3 pp). The website publishes one copy of the duplicated Board Secretary reports. The contents of these 11 files await OCR. No contents are stated for them beyond receipt, and no CAP owner or deadline substance, agreement terms, or principal contract terms are claimed from them beyond what is already in the audit docs. The school request stays open pending completeness review. Denials in the matrix cite no legal basis. Items 21, 22, 25, 27 were referred to online sources or access. Item 26 (Anticipated Contracts 2024-2025) has no separately identified file. Item 7 is marked NA. Municipality (retrieved): 2026 budget presentation (proposal, 4/6/2026); 2026 adopted budget workbook; 2026 adopted User-Friendly Budget; 2026 budget advertisement (legal notice); 2026 Preliminary Official Statement (5/12/2026); 2025 adopted and introduced budget workbooks; 2025 audit (report 5/5/2026); 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 audits; 2023 AFS; 2024 intro budget presentation. Not located: 2021 adopted budget workbook; direct URL of the 2026 introduced workbook; 2026 AFS (not yet published).
[DOC] The Town of Boonton's 2026 User-Friendly Budget (adopted), sheet UFB-1, "% of Total Levy" row, CY2025 Actual column, publishes: school district 62.31%, municipal purposes 26.06%, Morris County general 9.95%, municipal library 1.41%, county open space 0.27% — summing to exactly 100.00%. Cross-check: the audited apportionment (2026 Preliminary Official Statement, Appendix A, source: Annual Audit Reports) reports a CY2025 total levy of $38,626,694 with school $24,030,093 (62.21%), municipal+library grouped $10,650,979 (27.57%), county grouped $3,945,622 (10.21%). [INT] The 0.10-point difference is definitional: the UFB-1 shares are computed on the certified levy (~$38.57M); the audit's levy includes added/omitted assessments (~$58k layer). Both are correct on their own basis. Confidence: high.
[DOC → verified 2026-09-18] The Morris Plains 51.51% school-tax share is confirmed from the Borough of Morris Plains 2026 User-Friendly Budget PDF ("USER FRIENDLY BUDGET SECTION - PROPERTY TAX BREAKDOWN," sheet UFB-1, PDF p. 2 of 13): Local School District levy $20,067,667.00 at rate 1.313, out of the total 2025 calendar-year levy of $38,956,372.83 (total rate 2.548) — i.e., the school district's share of ALL taxing entities' 2025 calendar-year levies. Regional School District share is 0.00%, so the 51.51% reflects the Local School District only. (For reference, the 2026 estimated school levy $20,469,021 against an estimated total $39,968,265.42 ≈ 51.22% — not stated in the document.) Context from the same table: municipal-purposes levy rose $14,067,646.11 → $14,581,763.42 (+3.65%); CY2025 collections 99.41% of a $39,913,500.42 levy; delinquent taxes at 12/31/2025: $219,922.17. Structural caveat stands: Morris Plains sends grades 9–12 to the regional Morris School District, so its "school share" combines a local K-8 levy with a regionally apportioned HS levy — not comparable to Boonton's single K–12 district. Tax-share composition is neither a per-pupil cost measure nor an efficiency measure.
[DOC] The municipality is the single collection agent for all overlapping jurisdictions (POS, "Tax Assessment and Collection Procedure"). Of each tax dollar the town keeps only the 26.06% municipal-purposes levy for its own operations. The rest is passed through in full: school district 62.31% — the town must remit 100% of the certified school levy, with any balance by June 30 (end of the school FY); county general 9.95% + open space 0.27% — remitted to Morris County 100%, quarterly (2/15, 5/15, 8/15, 11/15); the county levy is apportioned among municipalities on equalized valuations; library 1.41% — the statutory minimum library levy (N.J.S.A. 40:54-8; $542,009 ÷ 2025 equalized value $1.652B ≈ 0.328 mil ✓), budgeted as revenue and appropriated identically as "Maintenance of Free Public Library" — a pure pass-through to the library board of trustees.
[DOC/CALC]
| Concept | Value | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| School's share of the property-tax levy | 62.31% (CY2025 actual) | Of each tax dollar billed, 62.31¢ is the school levy. Says nothing about spending or efficiency. |
| Property taxes' share of school General Fund revenue | 62.35% ($23,157,123 ÷ $37,140,532, FY2025–26 proposed) | Of the operating budget, 62.35% comes from the local levy; the rest is state aid (18.6%), tuition — substantially Lincoln Park (16.4%) — fund balance, and misc. |
| Property taxes' share of all-funds school revenue | 58.1% ($24,230,476 ÷ $41,688,601, FY2025–26 proposed) | Adds debt-service levy ($1,073,353) + state debt-service aid ($351,947), grants, preschool aid. |
The near-identity of 62.31% and 62.35% is coincidence. [INT] The 62.31% levy share reflects that Boonton funds a full K–12 district (offset by ~$6.07M of Lincoln Park tuition revenue) against a modest municipal budget — a statement about overlapping-levy composition, not cost efficiency.
Municipal side — CY2026 original budget [DOC/CALC]: total $17,769,364 = local tax for municipal purposes $10,258,094 (57.7%) + minimum library tax $584,374 (3.3%, pass-through) + surplus anticipated $3,058,000 (17.2%) + miscellaneous revenues $3,416,896 (19.2%, incl. Avalon Bay PILOT ~$990k) + delinquent-tax receipts $452,000 (2.5%). Anti-double-counting rules: (1) the school (~$24.0M) and county (~$3.9M) levies never enter the municipal budget — they are agency collections; (2) the library levy appears once as revenue and once as the offsetting appropriation; (3) the RUT ($1.5M) is a non-cash appropriation, not spendable money — the audit calls it "a nonspending budget appropriation account"; (4) intergovernmental aid is not levy-derived.
School side — FY2025–26 proposed [DOC]: General Fund $37,140,532 (levy $23,157,123 + tuition $6,073,853 + state aid $6,900,232 + fund balance $611,424 + capital-reserve withdrawal $260,000 + misc ~$130,000 + federal $7,900); Debt Service Fund $1,425,300 (local levy $1,073,353 + state aid $351,947); all funds net of transfers $41,688,601.
Period bridge [DOC/CALC]: the CY2025 school levy ($24,030,093 audit; $24,083,369 district estimate) ≈ ½ FY2024–25 levy + ½ FY2025–26 levy: the district's own estimate shows GF $22,711,794 = ½×$22,266,465 + ½×$23,157,123 exactly. [GAP] The same UFB's revenues page proposes $23,157,123 GF / $1,073,353 debt service ($24,230,476 total) vs. the tax-rate page's $22,711,794 / $24,083,369 — an internal inconsistency flagged unresolved (both pages generated 5/5/2025).
Illustrative $10,000 bill [CALC] (illustrative only — not any resident's actual bill): $6,231 school / $2,606 municipal / $995 county / $141 library / $27 open space. For context, the UFB-1's average-residential example implies roughly a $12,609 average bill (medium confidence, from garbled extraction cross-checked arithmetically).
[DOC] Assessed (taxable) value is essentially flat (~$1.10B) while equalized (market) value rose ~36% since 2022 ($1.303B → $1.769B); the assessed/market ratio fell from 85.26% to 63.26% — no revaluation in roughly a decade, so the nominal tax rate (3.478 per $100 in 2025) is inflated by the low ratio without meaning higher taxes than a revalued town. Revaluation watch: the 2025 budget's "Reserve for Tax Reassessment" was modified from $100,000 to $580,000 with $480,000 expended via emergency authorization — a revaluation appears underway or imminent. A revaluation redistributes the levy among properties; it changes no levy amount.
[DOC] Collections are strong and stable: 98.91% (2021), 98.53% (2022), 98.90% (2023), 98.79% (2024), 98.81% (2025) — $38,168,292 collected on a $38,626,694 levy. Delinquencies 12/31/2025: $486,091 (1.26% of levy). Tax appeals go to the Morris County Board of Taxation by April 1; successful appeals shrink the base (nudging the rate) but don't change levies or shares. The town budgets a small tax-appeal reserve ($10,000 in 2025).
[DOC] The Avalon Bay PILOT (~$990k–$1.0M/yr, miscellaneous revenue) sits outside the assessed base — the levy spreads over a narrower base while the PILOT offsets municipal appropriations (reducing the municipal-purposes levy need). Under the Long Term Tax Exemption Law the town remits 5% of the annual service charge to the county; the school district receives no PILOT share. [GAP] Full PILOT agreement terms (duration, escalation) are a still-needed record.
[DOC — RUT verified] The 2026 budget appropriates $1,500,000 for the reserve for uncollected taxes (same in 2025) and assumes a 96.21% collection rate (adopted budget, Explanatory Statement pp. 3–4; approved 4/6/2026, adopted 5/4/2026) vs. the 2025 actual 98.81% — the earlier claim is verified in direction: the budget was more conservative than experience. (An earlier working figure of 96.23% from RUT arithmetic is superseded by the document's stated 96.21%; the 0.02-point difference is rounding.) The statute expressly permits this: N.J.S.A. 40A:4-41 allows the prior year's collection percentage "or lesser percent." [GAP/flag] The 2026 budget anticipates $452,000 in delinquent-tax receipts vs. a researcher-computed N.J.S.A. 40A:4-29 cap of ~$446k — a verification item only (the budget was DLGS-approved); do not characterize as a violation without the workpapers.
[DOC/CALC] 2026 adopted total $17,769,364; 2025 adopted total $16,726,438 — growth +6.24% (+$1,042,926). Correction history (auditable): the review first stated +6.01% vs. a $16,761,438 denominator (the 2026 budget presentation's 2025 comparative column — not an adopted basis); revision pass 2 "corrected" this to +3.41% vs. $17,182,605 — but $17,182,605 was the 2024 adopted total, misassigned by a systematic column transposition in the town's budget workbooks (see §6.3). The 2025 adopted total is $16,726,438 (2025 budget, Sheet 3 p.4; corroborated as the 2026 budget's Sheet 3a 2025-comparative basis minus amendments). The 2026 budget's 2025 comparative total ($16,761,438) = 2025 adopted ($16,726,438) + $35,000 (Res. 25-228 Ch.159 insertion during 2025). The 8 presentation categories sum exactly to the total (verified). Debt service $1,295,146 (2026 adopted workbook, p.44) — differs from the 2026 budget advertisement's $1,274,702 ($920,000 principal + $354,702 interest) by $20,444; the adopted figure is used here. The tax levy $10,842,468 = $10,258,094 municipal + $584,374 library (derived; UFB corroborates). One 2026 amendment is on record but unconfirmed: Res. 26-225 (9/8/2026 agenda, $35,000 Ch.159 for Lumen Gentium SLEO) — if adopted, the amended 2026 total is $17,804,364.
[DOC/CALC] The FY2026–27 budget was finally adopted 4/27/2026 (public hearing + adoption; tentative 3/23/2026; no amendments found in May 2026 minutes; NJDOE UFB generated 7/14/2026 confirms adopted totals with no post-adoption amendments reflected) — superseding the advertised version. Adopted General Fund $38,629,369 (UFB: $38,629,370 — $1 rounding), +$231,571 (+0.6%) vs. advertised $38,397,799. Documented causes in the adoption resolution (4/27/2026 minutes): Energy/Natural Gas $196,500→$222,285 (+$25,785); Energy/Electricity $296,149→$321,935 (+$25,786); Construction Services $483,792→$663,792 (+$180,000, flooring upgrades); 25,785 + 25,786 + 180,000 = 231,571 ✓. The resolution also includes a $984,178 adjustment for increased health-care costs — new evidence on the benefits driver (§5) — and an $8,792 capital-reserve withdrawal for Boonton HS gym upgrades (total project $91,650). All-funds adopted expenditures $43,978,501 = GF $38,629,369 + Special Revenue $3,923,632 + Debt Service $1,425,500 (38,629,369 + 3,923,632 + 1,425,500 = 43,978,501 ✓); UFB revenues/sources $44,036,868 gross / $43,398,160 net (gross−net = $638,708 — the same internal transfer; elimination still appropriate). Total tax levy $25,616,067 = GF $24,604,443 + debt service $1,011,624 (24,604,443 + 1,011,624 = 25,616,067 ✓); Special Revenue $0 levy. The advertised-detail reconciliation (instruction $15,616,311 + services $14,257,201 + benefits $7,889,294 + capital $489,525 + charter $145,468 = $38,397,799 ✓) is retained as the last published line-item breakdown; the adopted line-item detail (including the adopted benefits total and capital-outlay total) should be read from the UFB. Confidence: high.
[DOC — 6/8/2026 minutes reviewed] The June 8, 2026 BOE minutes (16 pp.) add three items: (a) the Tax Levy Schedule 2026-2027 was approved — $25,616,067 ($24,604,443 GF + $1,011,624 DS), monthly $2,050,370.25 (p.14 item 5) — corroborating the adopted levy; (b) the auditor appointment — Lerch, Vinci & Bliss, $34,700 for the 2025-2026 audit (p.15 item 11); (c) year-end reserve deposits authorized — the SBA may transfer up to $1,500,000 EACH into the Capital Reserve, Tuition Reserve and/or Maintenance Reserve in June (p.15 item 13), which bounds the June-2027 reserve projections in §8. Not found: no post-adoption budget amendment; no transfers over $50,000 (only the reserve deposits); Lincoln Park tuition appears only as a discussion topic under Operations-Finance (p.1), with no action. This closes the June-amendment check (monitoring W-23).
[DOC/CALC] A-03 Account Totals, 11 pp, period 7/1/2026 to 6/30/2027, run 10/13/26. Use only figures that foot and tie. Original budget is the adopted basis; adjusted reflects transfers as of the run date. Full detail in schedules/fy27-account-totals.csv. Fund 10: original and adjusted $145,468.00 (charter transfer). Fund 11: adjusted $37,837,279.96; original $37,814,375.64; transfers $22,904.32. Footing: $37,814,375.64 plus $22,904.32 equals $37,837,279.96. Fund 12: adjusted $716,291.35; original $669,525.00; transfers $46,766.35. Footing: $669,525.00 plus $46,766.35 equals $716,291.35. Fund 12 original $669,525.00 equals Construction Services original $663,792.00 plus Assessment for Debt Service on SDA Funding $5,733.00. Equipment $0.00. Fund 20 Special Revenue: adjusted $3,883,220.00; original $3,936,997.08; transfers ($53,777.08). Fund 40 Debt Service: $1,425,500.00 (Interest $390,500.00 plus Redemption of Principal $1,035,000.00). Total of all Groups: adjusted $44,007,759.31; original $43,991,865.72; transfers $15,893.59. Footing: $43,991,865.72 plus $15,893.59 equals $44,007,759.31. General Fund original tie: Fund 10 $145,468.00 plus Fund 11 $37,814,375.64 plus Fund 12 $669,525.00 equals $38,629,368.64, which rounds to the adopted General Fund $38,629,369. State the $0.36 rounding. Special Revenue discrepancy to flag, not hide: A-03 Fund 20 original $3,936,997.08 vs C-13 Proposed $3,981,998 vs UFB adopted $3,923,632 (per §3.7). Total original $43,991,865.72 is $13,364.72 above the adopted all-funds $43,978,501, driven by the SRF difference ($3,936,997.08 minus $3,923,632 equals $13,365.08, $0.36 rounding). Do not reconcile SRF across sources without further records. Use GF figures, which tie. Notable A-03 line items (original unless noted): Tuition to Private School for the Disabled (11-000-100-566) $2,404,346.90; Tuition to Other LEA Special (11-000-100-562) adjusted $231,185.50, original $233,753.00; Tuition to County Vocational Regular (11-000-100-563) $334,843.50; Health Benefits (11-000-291-270) adjusted $4,340,194.26, original $4,340,194.26 (do not quote a transfer figure for this line; extraction shows a negative transfer figure that does not foot against the printed adjusted and original). Fund 12 transfer $46,766.35 equals the Hannon JHS flooring open PO amount (observed equality, not proof of cause).
[DOC] C-13 is the advertised/proposed budget detail, not the adopted UFB. Its General Fund total $38,629,370 matches adopted $38,629,369 within $1 rounding, but SRF differs (see above). Full line detail in schedules/fy27-budget-lines.csv. Revenues (General Fund): Local Tax Levy $24,604,443 (up $1,447,320, 6.25 percent vs revised 2025-26 $23,157,123); Tuition from Other LEAs $6,205,885 (up $132,032, 2.17 percent); Total Local Sources $30,940,328; State Sources $7,266,247 (Equalization Aid $4,211,785, Special-Ed Categorical $1,784,849, Extraordinary Aid $800,000, Transportation Aid $132,377, Security Aid $337,236); Federal Medicaid $57,064; Budgeted Fund Balance $356,939; Withdraw from Capital Reserve $8,792; Total Operating Budget $38,629,370. Total Revenues/Sources (all funds) $44,036,868. Debt Service: Local Tax Levy $1,011,624; Debt Service Aid Type II $364,599; Budgeted Fund Balance $49,277; Total Repayment of Debt $1,425,500. Adequacy (p. 27): District Adequacy Budget $27,012,255; Total Budgeted Adequacy Spending (GF Levy $24,604,443 plus Equalization Aid $4,211,785) $28,816,228; Excess $1,803,973. Stated explanation: "Healthcare premiums rose by 26.5% in 25-26 and are anticipated to rise by 15.5% in 26-27." This is the source of the 26.5 percent note. It is the district stated explanation for exceeding adequacy, not an independently verified premium history. Per-pupil (p. 85, Advertised Per Pupil Cost Calculations): Total Budgetary Comparative Per Pupil Cost Proposed 2026-27 $23,071; Revised 2025-26 $22,616; Original 2025-26 $21,340; Actual 2024-25 $21,246; Actual 2023-24 $20,298. Components Proposed 2026-27: Classroom Instruction $13,519 (Salaries and Benefits $12,903; General Supplies and Textbooks $441; Purchased Services $176); Support Services $5,047 (Salaries and Benefits $4,709); Administrative Costs $1,953 (Salaries and Benefits $1,613); Operations and Maintenance $1,767 (Salaries and Benefits $907); Extracurricular $761; Equipment $0; Legal $71. Employee Benefits as a percentage of salaries: 38.33 percent proposed; 34.26 percent revised 2025-26; 33.56 percent original 2025-26; 28.37 percent actual 2024-25; 27.70 percent actual 2023-24. Footnote: excludes pension and Social Security paid by the State on-behalf of the district. Employee Benefits Summary (p. 89), General Fund: Totals $5,692,260 (2024-25 actual) / $7,018,213 (2025-26 appropriations) / $7,889,294 (2026-27 appropriations). Detail 2026-27: Group Insurance $5,790; Social Security $436,429; Other Retirement PERS $551,015; Other Retirement Regular $8,400; Workers Comp $173,009; Health Benefits $6,338,244; Tuition Reimbursement $96,775; Other Employee Benefits $237,850; Unused Sick Payment $41,782. Sum checks to $7,889,294. Health benefits split: District Share $6,338,244; Total Employee Share $1,041,263; Total Health Benefits Costs $7,379,507. 2025-26: District $5,494,870; Employee $1,004,111; Total $6,498,981. 2024-25: District $4,132,080; Employee $942,492; Total $5,074,572. Each year District plus Employee equals Total. Capital (p. 22-24 and summary): Total Capital Outlay Proposed 2026-27 $669,525; Revised 2025-26 $1,562,908; Actual 2024-25 $1,172,412. Facilities Acquisition total $669,525 equals Construction Services $663,792 plus Assessment for Debt Service on SDA Funding $5,733. Equipment $0. Capital Project Detail: Project 1 $8,792 Construction Services; Project 2 $475,000 Construction Services; Project 3 $180,000 Construction Services. Sum $663,792. Reserves (Recap of Balances, pp. 15-18): Capital Reserve ending 6/30: $1,088,903 (2024-25 audited) / $828,903 (2025-26 revised) / $820,111 (2026-27 proposed). Capital Reserve Max Local Amount (memo) $50,909,217 (LRFP). Maintenance Reserve ending $50,000 flat. Tuition Reserve ending $0. Legal Reserve ending $0 in 2026-27 (was $739,452 then $352,028). Unassigned ending $746,531 in 2026-27. Capital Reserve withdrawals: $260,000 in 2025-26, $8,792 in 2026-27. Enrollment (Advertised Enrollment, p. 93): Onroll Full 1,241.0 (10/15/2024 actual) / 1,241.0 (10/15/2025 actual) / 1,235.0 (10/15/2026 estimated); Onroll Shared 12.0 / 22.0 / 26.0; SpEd Full 273.0 / 256.0 / 305.0. Do NOT quote C-13 charter enrollment; use B-08 final enrollment (LEAD 1.0, Unity 6.0). Other C-13 lines verified: Regular Programs Instruction Total $10,417,257 proposed; Special Education Instruction Total $3,271,173; Tuition to Private School for the Disabled $2,404,347 proposed (matches A-03 $2,404,346.90 within rounding); Transfer of Funds to Charter Schools $145,468 proposed; Preschool Education Aid $2,196,612; Transfer from Operating Budget PreK Special Education (Inclusion) $638,708. Shared Services (p. 90): district purchases fuel from town DPW, purchases road salt from town DPW, participates in cooperatives, shares maintenance vehicles, provides electricity/water for Fireman Fair, provides facilities at no charge for town recreation, purchases internet bandwidth through a cooperative. Amount Saved shown as 0 for listed items. State as listed, not as quantified savings.
Status vocabulary: open · partially corrected · corrected with evidence · superseded · not verifiable from available records. Full register: schedules/findings-register.csv; detail: working/d-findings-register.md. No status below asserts an FY2024/FY2025 issue remains unresolved today; a plan adoption alone does not prove correction.
2025-01 — Unemployment-claim documentation and timeliness. [DOC] Documentation supporting payments to NJ DOL for the district's share of unemployment claims was not always maintained; payments were not always timely, resulting in interest and penalties. The district uses the Benefit Reimbursement Method (reimburses the State quarterly; no premiums). [DOC] FY2025 (restricted, General Fund): employee contributions $42,110; interest earned $1,316; reimbursed to State $43,085; ending balance $28,515 (ACFR Note 4.A). The earlier notes establish no dollar amount for interest/penalties, and none was found: assessed/billed, paid, outstanding, and recovered/waived are not separately stated anywhere — they are kept strictly separate here. Causes, responsible roles, and backup coverage are not named in the AMR. [DOC] The CAP was received Oct 15, 2026 (B-05, 3 pp, UNEXTRACTED image-only scan; board meeting 1/5/2026, attested by the Superintendent and the Business Administrator, implementation date 12/31/2025). CAP action: monthly review of unemployment documents (Business Administrator + Payroll Coordinator). NJ927 confirmations (B-06). All four confirmations are for Town of Boonton Board of Education. All four show GIT Balance Due $0.00 and GIT previously remitted equal to GIT due. Full figures in schedules/nj927-confirmations.csv: Q3 2025 (Quarter/Yr 3/2025, quarter ending 09/30/2025, filed 10/15/2025): GIT wages $3,230,804.57; GIT due $124,942.95; previously remitted $124,942.95; UI/WF/DI/FLI Balance Due $1,117.65; payment $1,117.65; covered workers Month 1/2/3: 227 / 224 / 342. Q4 2025 (file labeled B-06_2026Q4, Quarter/Yr field 4/2025, quarter ending 12/31/2025, filed 01/08/2026): GIT wages $6,758,859.83; GIT due $266,872.49; previously remitted $266,872.49; UI/WF/DI/FLI Balance Due $1,679.74; payment $1,679.74; covered workers 341 / 338 / 335. The file-label vs quarter-field mismatch is stated here: labeled 2026Q4, quarter field 4/2025. Q1 2026 (Quarter/Yr 1/2026, ending 03/31/2026, filed 04/30/2026): GIT wages $6,915,825.25; GIT due $273,504.06; previously remitted $273,504.06; UI/WF/DI/FLI Balance Due $8,574.90; payment $8,574.90; covered workers 346 / 340 / 343. Q2 2026 (Quarter/Yr 2/2026, ending 06/30/2026, filed 07/30/2026): GIT wages $6,915,450.99; GIT due $274,042.02; previously remitted $274,042.02; UI/WF/DI/FLI Balance Due $0.00; payment $0.00; covered workers 345 / 342 / 352. [INT] Interpretation limit: these confirmations show filing and stated balances for these four quarters. They do not by themselves prove or disprove the FY2025 AMR finding, and no interest or penalty amount for 2025-01 is stated in them. Do not claim interest or penalties are resolved. Two as-printed oddities are recorded, not resolved: Q3 line 15 shows UI and WF contributions $1,117.66 while line 20 balance due is $1,117.65 ($0.01 difference as printed); Q2 Payments Received ($59,502.10) exceeds the quarter UI/WF plus FLI contributions shown ($21,483.71) and the confirmation does not break out the difference, while Balance Due is $0.00 as printed. The confirmations contain a masked employer tax ID, masked bank details, and contact details; none of those values are quoted here. Status: CAP received (unextracted); implementation pending FY2026 audit. The FY2026 audit (expected about Oct 2026) is the first independent check on CAP implementation.
2025-02 — Revenue and receivable accuracy. [DOC] Revenues and receivables "not always accurately reported"; recommendation to monitor and adjust receivables to actual amounts due. No fund, source, period, or amount is given. (For context only — not linked to the finding by any source: "Receivables from Other Governments" were $247,598 governmental + $25,591 business-type at 6/30/2025.) [DOC] The CAP was received Oct 15, 2026 (B-05, UNEXTRACTED; board meeting 1/5/2026; implementation date 12/31/2025). CAP action: monthly review of receivables against Board Secretary reports (Business Administrator + Assistant to the Business Administrator). No new revenue/receivable reconciliation records in the Oct 15 production directly test this finding. Status: CAP received (unextracted); implementation pending FY2026 audit.
2025-03 — Charter-school payment schedule. [DOC] Payments to a charter school did not follow the NJDOE-issued payment schedule. The AMR names no school, schedule, dates, amounts, correction, balance, or penalty — do not infer penalties. [DOC] The ACFR shows "Transfer of Funds to Charter School" actual $95,320 = final budget $95,320 (variance $0) plus $1,000 aid-in-lieu — that demonstrates budget compliance, not schedule compliance. [DOC] The CAP was received Oct 15, 2026 (B-05, UNEXTRACTED; board meeting 1/5/2026; implementation date 12/31/2025). CAP action: quarterly review of open POs for charter payments (Business Administrator + AP Coordinator). Charter payments (B-08). Unity Charter School, check journal (B-08_Payments to charter schools.pdf, 1 p, Fund 10 account 10-000-100-561-10-00-00, period 7/1/2025 to 6/30/2026): five checks totaling $185,352.20. Detail: 07/14/25 $65,369.20, check 120957, PO 500605, memo "09/11/24 24-25 ENROLLMENT"; 10/13/25 $18,928.00, check H51105; 10/27/25 $7,968.00, check H51181; 01/26/26 $15,936.00, check H51902; 06/26/26 $77,151.00, check H53107. The last four all carry memo "10/03/25 2025-26 ENROLLMENT", PO 600849. [CALC] Reconciliation: $65,369.20 plus $119,983.00 equals $185,352.20. The $65,369.20 check is a prior-year PO (500605). The four FY26 checks sum to $119,983.00. [DOC] NJDOE FY 2025-26 District Payment Schedule, Based on Final Enrollment (B-08_FY26_CHR_FINAL_DIST_R3_PAYSCHED_0450.pdf, 2 pp, dated 06/24/2026): LEAD Charter School (6109): final enrollment 1.0, weighted 1.8, total equalization aid/local amount 24,314, local percent 79.386 percent, state percent 20.614 percent, state share 5,012, local share 19,302, special-ed categorical aid 0, security aid 561, total state 5,573, total General Fund payment 24,875, preschool aid 0, total payment 24,875. Schedule has $0 for July through Dec 2025, then $464 / $3,217 / $464 pattern Jan through June 2026, final adjustment 0. Unity CS (8050): final enrollment 6.0, weighted 7.2, total equalization aid/local amount 111,195, local share 88,273, state share 22,922, special-ed categorical aid 7,096, security aid 1,692, total state 31,710, total General Fund payment 119,983, preschool aid 0, total payment 119,983. Schedule has monthly payments July 2025 through June 2026. [DOC] Cross-checks: D-16 FY26 Unity vendor block: $119,983.00 Total Orders, $119,983.00 Total Checks, $0.00 balance, PO 600849, with the same four payments (July $18,928 on 10/13/25, Oct $7,968 on 10/27/25, Nov $15,936 on 01/26/26, Jan $77,151 on 06/26/26). D-16 FY25 Unity: $95,320.00 orders and checks, PO 500605, matching the ACFR FY2025 transfer $95,320. [INT] Key limits: the four FY26 Unity actual payments total exactly the NJDOE final schedule total ($119,983), but actual payment dates do NOT match the NJDOE monthly scheduled dates (actuals are four lump payments in Oct 2025, Oct 2025, Jan 2026, June 2026). This is schedule-timing evidence relevant to 2025-03, not proof of compliance or noncompliance. LEAD: the NJDOE schedule shows $24,875, but no LEAD payment was found in the produced B-08, D-16, or D-17 records searched. State only that no LEAD payment record was found in those files, not that LEAD was unpaid. [CALC] Charter appropriation gap: Unity $119,983 plus LEAD $24,875 equals $144,858, which is $610 below the A-03 Fund 10 original budget $145,468. State as an unreconciled $610 difference, not a finding. Full detail in schedules/charter-payments.csv. Status: CAP received (unextracted); implementation pending FY2026 audit.
2025-04 — John Hill School deposit timeliness. [DOC] Receipts collected at John Hill School were not always deposited timely. This documents delayed deposits only — not unrecorded receipts, missing money, or loss. Magnitude/frequency unknown. [DOC] The CAP was received Oct 15, 2026 (B-05, UNEXTRACTED; board meeting 1/5/2026; implementation date 12/31/2025). CAP action: review of John Hill deposits with the school secretary (Business Administrator + School Secretary). New evidence corrects the prior characterization of item B-09: the file is a Contras / Refunds by Account report, NOT deposit-timing records. JHS Student Activity total ($68,903.53); PreK ($2,384.00). Use only as the population of activity contras/refunds transactions, not as a measure of deposit delay. Deposit timing is still not shown by this file. See schedules/student-activity-contras.csv. Status: CAP received (unextracted); implementation pending FY2026 audit.
Single-audit (ACFR Exhibit K-6, same 10/16/2025 report) — clean. [DOC] Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs: Part 2 (financial-statement findings) — "There are none"; Part 3 (federal awards) — "There are none"; Part 3 (state awards) — "There are none." Low-risk auditee: yes; major federal programs IDEA Basic + Preschool; major state program Preschool Education Expansion Aid; unmodified compliance opinions. This is a different audit product from the AMR administrative findings above — the two coexist by design.
The 11/24/2025 BOE minutes record the audit presentation: "four recommendations for corrective action," unmodified opinions on the basic financial statements, ~$400,000 regenerated fund balance, and "no material weaknesses" — the administrative findings coexist with clean financial-statement opinions because they are different audit products. The CAP (B-05) was received in the Oct 15, 2026 production as a 3-page image-only scan (UNEXTRACTED; board meeting 1/5/2026). Its contents await OCR; owners and the 12/31/2025 implementation date are stated in the finding entries above.
[DOC] Per the FY2025 AMR follow-up section (which states corrective action was taken on all prior-year recommendations), corroborated where noted:
Status: corrected with evidence (each with stated verification limitations).
M-2025-001 — Fixed assets (significant deficiency; repeat). [DOC] "The Town did not have an updated Fixed Asset report prepared for year end" (audit pp. 143–146); recommendation: obtain an updated report from an independent appraisal company. Explicit repeat chain: 2023-001 → 2024-001 → 2025-001 — three consecutive cycles, an unremediated control weakness. Questioned costs: "Unknown." The General Fixed Assets Account Group ($25,202,385 — land $12,430,917; buildings $3,877,165; machinery/equipment $8,894,303) is identical at 12/31/2025 and 2024, corroborating a stale inventory; the statement is captioned "Unaudited." Opinion effect: the auditor could not obtain sufficient evidence over the General Fixed Assets Account Group (and, separately, unaudited LOSAP trust activity: 61%/56% of trust assets/liabilities) — hence the qualified regulatory-basis opinion. [INT] The qualification attaches to those balances only — not the Current Fund, General Capital, water/sewer utilities, or other trust funds. Do not imply every account was unreliable. Insufficient asset records are not proof assets disappeared. The GAGAS report finds no material weakness and no material noncompliance. CAP: Resolution 26-207 adopted 7/20/2026 (CFO to file with DLGS); the CAP's contents are not posted online. Follow-up 2026-09-18: July 20, 2026 minutes (18 pp.) checked — Res. 26-207 "RESOLUTION APPROVING CORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN FOR THE 2025 AUDIT" confirms CAP adoption and notes the 2025 audit contained two (2) recommendations. Post-adoption implementation sweep: Aug 17, 2026 minutes (Res. 26-210–26-219, read in full) — no fixed-asset/CAP items; Sep 8, 2026 agenda (Res. 26-222–26-227) — none; Sep 21, 2026 agenda (read in full; Res. 26-231–26-238) — none. Res. 26-238 (9/21/2026) authorizes disposal of surplus property (2000 Seagrave pumper, $35,000 starting bid via GovDeals) — a tangential asset disposal, not recordkeeping remediation. Status: open — no implementation evidence through 9/21/2026.
M-2025-REC — Library timesheets (management recommendation, not a numbered finding). [DOC] Hourly library employee timesheets lacked approval signatures; recommendation: obtain the Library Director's approval signature (audit pp. 154, 156). New in 2025; no management response recorded; no documented loss. Status: not verifiable from available records.
[INT] The municipal fixed-asset item is a genuine repeated deficiency. The school's FY2025 findings are distinct from FY2024's (none repeated), though their clustering around financial-operations controls — payment timeliness/documentation, receivable accuracy, payment scheduling, deposit timeliness — may suggest broader business-office process weakness; that is interpretation, not auditor classification. Monthly financial reporting: the FY2025 school AMR notes Board Secretary minutes were in good condition with acknowledgment of monthly financial reports; the municipal audit reports no material noncompliance. Segregation of duties, bank reconciliations, and payment-approval testing were not independently performed in this review — see the test plan (§7, records-requests.md).
Full lead-by-lead analysis: working/e-cost-pressures.md. Verdict table:
| # | Lead | Verdict | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | School presentation categories exceed GF total by ~$1.23M | Arithmetic verified; excess = GF capital outlay ($1,228,933) to the dollar → presentation classification/double-count issue, not missing money | High (arithmetic); Medium (mechanism — needs district mapping) |
| 2 | School benefits ~$7.02M → ~$7.89M | Verified only as revised FY2025–26 ($7,018,213) → advertised FY2026–27 ($7,889,294): +$871,081 (+12.4%); original-basis +$941,881 (+13.6%); revised figure itself raised $70,800 mid-year. Benefits/salary ratio 33.56% → 34.26% → 38.33%. New evidence (adoption resolution 4/27/2026): a $984,178 adjustment for increased health-care costs is documented — the increase is now partially explained; the full rate/enrollment/contribution decomposition was unpublic. Benefits detail (C-10). Horizon renewal (C-10_Renl_Sum_Rates__Boonton BOE_2026.pdf, 17 pp, renewal period 7/1/2026 to 6/30/2027, group Boonton BOE): every medical and prescription page shows Percentage Change 15.50 percent. Medical pages (pp. 1-11): 2.63 percent broker commission on premium including ACA Fee and NJ Assessment; text states the percentage paid is slightly less than 2.71 percent of premium including these taxes. Prescription pages (pp. 12-17): 3.32 percent broker commission; text states slightly less than 3.42 percent including taxes. Do NOT state a single 2.63 percent commission; state both. Verified medical current vs renewal monthly rates (Single / 2 Adults / Family / P&C) and prescription rates are tabulated in full in schedules/benefits-decomposition.csv. Examples: Direct Access Design 8, groups 0010,0011 (p. 2): $1,364.90 to $1,576.46; $3,037.86 to $3,508.73; $3,534.57 to $4,082.43; $2,015.54 to $2,327.95. Average monthly contract exposure total 56 (Single 20, 2 Adults 6, Family 25, P&C 5). Direct Access Design NJEH, groups 0025,0026 (p. 8): $1,201.70 to $1,387.96; $2,692.75 to $3,110.13; $3,128.24 to $3,613.12; $1,825.45 to $2,108.39. Exposure total 162 (Single 57, 2 Adults 14, Family 76, P&C 15). Do not quote exposure for pages where extraction is ambiguous. Only pp. 2 and 8 exposure totals are clear enough to use. [DOC] Benefits actuals for state report (Ch. 44), medical plans DA, OMNIA, EHP, by tier: 2023-24 (C-10_Actual 2023-2024 for state report.pdf, 1 p): Total for Selected Coverage (D) $5,093,317.88; EE Contributions (E) $915,415.11; Net Cost (F) $4,177,902.77. D minus E equals F exactly. Sum of average active EE (column B) 216.63 (fractional because partial-year). Largest rows: Family EHP D $1,885,470.72, E $260,283.25, F $1,625,187.47; Family DA 15/25 D $1,176,791.91, E $293,474.09, F $883,317.82; Single EHP D $695,125.81, E $95,796.55, F $599,329.26. 2024-25 (C-10_Actual 2024-2025 for state report.pdf, 1 p): D $5,315,684.00; E $714,477.00; F $4,601,207.00. D minus E equals F exactly. Sum of average active EE 221.93. Largest rows: Family EHP D $2,223,045.00, E $190,255.00, F $2,032,790.00; Single EHP D $788,463.00, E $64,225.00, F $724,238.00; Family DA 15/25 D $890,768.00, E $231,884.00, F $658,884.00. Label these as medical-plan actuals per the Ch. 44 state report, not all benefits. Note EE contributions fell from $915,415.11 to $714,477.00 while total rose; state the figures only, do not interpret the cause. [DOC] Benefits-slice account totals (objects 220, 241, 249, 260, 270 only): C-10_Account Totals FY27.pdf (2 pp, period 7/1/2026 to 6/30/2027): Fund 11 adjusted/original $7,507,096.40; Fund 20 $1,025,751.00; Total of all Groups $8,532,847.40. Footing: $7,507,096.40 plus $1,025,751.00 equals $8,532,847.40. C-10_Account Totals FY26.pdf (3 pp, period 7/1/2025 to 6/30/2026): Fund 11 adjusted $6,672,227.72, original $6,557,500.87; Fund 20 adjusted $922,843.65, original $605,463.00; Total adjusted $7,595,071.37, original $7,162,963.87. Tie to C-13: C-13 FY2026-27 General Fund subset (220 $436,429 + 241 $551,015 + 249 $8,400 + 260 $173,009 + 270 $6,338,244) equals $7,507,097, matching C-10 FY27 Fund 11 $7,507,096.40 within $0.60 rounding. FY26 C-10 vs C-13 revised differ by timing/transfers; do not claim an exact FY26 tie. [DOC] Delta Dental (C-10_Pages from 2026-07 Delta Billing.pdf, 1 p, single invoice PM00000001290572, billing period 07/01/2026 to 07/31/2026, invoice date 06/11/2026, due date 06/21/2026, Amount Due $42,437.28, 243 subscribers): Coverage Summary shows Balance Forward $21,000.69, Current Fees $226.66, Adjustment Credits ($81.36), Net Current Fees $21,145.99. Recent Activity shows Prior Balance $21,291.29, Payments Applied $0.00, Balance Forward $21,291.29. Grand Total $42,437.28 equals $21,291.29 plus $21,145.99. Do NOT present $21,000.69 as the amount due or as arrears. State both balance-forward figures and that the single invoice does not resolve which is correct. Do not use it as an arrears finding. The invoice also contains an online signup token, which is not quoted. | |
| 3 | School capital outlay "roughly halved" | Decline verified and larger than halved on the advertised basis: −68.7% revised-basis, −60.2% original-basis ($1,562,908 → $489,525). Capital-reserve withdrawal drops $260,000 → $8,792. Adoption added +$180,000 in Construction Services (flooring upgrades) — the adopted capital-outlay total should be read from the UFB, not stated from the advertised figure. A-03 Account Totals (run 10/13/26) show adopted Fund 12 original $669,525.00 (Construction Services $663,792.00 plus Assessment for Debt Service on SDA Funding $5,733.00; Equipment $0.00), adjusted $716,291.35 after a $46,766.35 transfer. See schedules/fy27-account-totals.csv and §3.8. No project-completion explanation found for the underlying decline. | High (figures); explanation open |
| 4 | Town group insurance $1.65M → $2.3M | Framing corrected. Like-for-like inside-cap employee-group appropriation (23-220): $1,650,000 (2025 original, audited) → $1,747,200 (2026 adopted) = +$97,200 (+5.9%). The 2026 budget adds a NEW outside-cap line 23-210 of $287,800 (was $0 in 2025); 2026 total health appropriation = $1,747,200 + $287,800 = $2,035,000. Correction: the previously stated +23.3% compared the 2025 inside-cap figure against the 2026 combined figure — mixing measures. Present both; do not double-count. The presentation's broader "Health Insurance" $1,906,250 → $2,300,200 bundles liability + workers' comp + waiver (2025 bridge verified exactly; 2026 bridge incomplete — line-item workbook was rate-limited). Town's stated explanation: "market driven" — not independently verified. History (in-cap): $1,241,082 (2021) → $1,305,000 (2022) → $1,245,000 (2023, + $275,000 ARP funds) → $891,461 (2024, + $658,539 ARP funds) → $1,650,000 (2025). | High (verified figures); 2026 bridge and drivers open |
| 5 | Police S&W $3.66M → $3.90M | 2025 original $3,660,960 verified (audited); modified $3,660,960; paid $3,654,261. 2026 $3,895,255 VERIFIED from the 2026 adopted budget (25-240 S&W, pp. 24-25) — the prior lead is resolved; +$234,295 (+6.4%) vs. 2025 original. Five-year: $2,995,772 (2021) → $3,320,205 (2022) → $3,435,045 (2023) → $3,576,350 (2024) → $3,660,960 (2025) → $3,895,255 (2026). Decomposition (base/overtime/other) unavailable. | High |
| 6 | School internal-transfer bridge | Verified and appropriate: $638,708 (FY2026–27 proposed; $476,837 revised FY2025–26) eliminated from consolidated totals; not external spending | High |
[INT] None of the leads, as verified, is evidence of missing funds, improper contracts, or financial-statement error. Leads 1 and 6 are presentation/accounting mechanics; Leads 2–4 document real increases whose drivers are not explained in public records; a large increase alone is not evidence of impropriety. Minor flag: a $12,685 (0.22%) cross-source difference in 2025 total S&W ($5,776,355 ad/POS vs. $5,789,040 audit detail) — immaterial but noted.
[DOC/CALC] FY2026–27 advertised: GF $38,397,799 + SRF $3,981,998 + DSF $1,425,500 = $43,805,297 gross; less internal transfer $638,708 = $43,166,589 net. Adopted 4/27/2026: GF $38,629,369 + SRF $3,923,632 + DSF $1,425,500 = $43,978,501 expenditures; UFB revenues/sources $44,036,868 gross − $638,708 = $43,398,160 net — the same internal-transfer elimination, still appropriate. Transfer legs identified: GF appropriation 11-105-100-936 ("Local Contribution—Transfer To Special Revenues—Inclusion") → SRF revenue 20-5200 ("Transfers from Operating Budget—Pre-Kindergarten (Special Education)"). The same flow type nets to zero in the FY2023 audited B-2 ($372,032). FY2025–26 proposed: $42,099,601 − $411,000 = $41,688,601. Full bridge: schedules/fund-bridges.csv. Presentation-to-account crosswalks: schedules/presentation-crosswalks.csv.
[DOC] From the FY2025 ACFR Exhibit J-4 (statistical section; FY2023 and FY2025 rows cross-checked exactly to those years' audited B-2):
| FY2021 | FY2025 | Nominal Δ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenues | $39,277,798 | $47,824,510 | +21.8% |
| Total expenditures | $39,080,573 | $48,028,359 | +22.9% |
| Net change in fund balances | +$197,225 | −$60,835 | — |
Largest nominal increases: special-education instruction +$2.15M (+35.8%); regular instruction +$2.68M (+18.3%); student & instruction related services +$1.66M (+21.5%); state sources +$5.83M (+53.6%, incl. on-behalf TPAF). Largest percentage: transportation +82.3% ($729K → $1.33M); other instruction +75.8%. Declines: federal sources peaked at $1.75M (FY2023, COVID-era) → $1.02M (FY2025); debt service fell 24.6% as bonds amortize. Expenditures exceeded revenues in 3 of 5 years (FY23–FY25) by $0.25M/$0.34M/$0.20M — a modest structural gap funded from fund balance. Full tables: schedules/school-5yr-trends.csv.
FY2025 budget vs. actual (General Fund, budgetary; ACFR C-1) [DOC/CALC]: final budget $35,157,454 → actual $35,278,476 → net overrun $121,022 (0.34%) — no persistent material line overruns. The $8.29M revenue "variance" is non-budgeted on-behalf TPAF ($7,994,781). Notable lines: private-placement tuition underspent $105,499; health benefits overran $44,586; capital outlay underspent ~$114k combined. Budgetary fund balance 6/30/2025: $3,010,941 (GAAP $1,583,615).
Inflation-adjusted (CPI-U, FY-matched Jul–Jun; cumulative +20.7%) [CALC]: total spending +1.8% real; revenues +0.8% real; tax levy −8.9% real (2%-cap regime); special-ed instruction +12.5% real; transportation +51.0% real; state sources +27.2% real; cost per pupil −2.9% real. [INT] Nominal growth is overwhelmingly price-level. CPI-U is a general deflator with stated limitations (understates health-insurance/contracted-labor growth). Full real table: schedules/school-5yr-trends-real.csv.
Staffing & enrollment [DOC]: total FTE 277.1 → 280.6 (+1.3%) while October enrollment rose 1,461 → 1,556 (+6.5%); FTE per 100 pupils fell 18.97 → 18.03. Classification shifts are visible (student/instruction-related services FTE 56.9 → 29.9 → 44.4; general admin 2 → 6 in FY2022) — treat function-level comparisons cautiously. Pupil-teacher ratios flat (~1:08–1:10). BHS is at 132% of stated capacity (659 vs. 501), driven by ~289–301 Lincoln Park received students. Full table: schedules/school-5yr-staffing-enrollment.csv.
Revenue drivers & risks [DOC/INT]:
Enrollment projection (LRFP, C-14) [DOC]. NJDOE standard cohort-survival projection for district 0450 (C-14_LRFP Boonton Cohort Enrollment Projection 2025 by DOE.pdf, 1 p): Average Survival Rates: Kindergarten 0.703; 1st 1.008; 2nd 0.994; 3rd 0.953; 4th 0.960; 5th 1.026; 6th 0.999; 7th 0.997; 8th 1.027; 9th 1.851; 10th 1.053; 11th 0.984; 12th 0.977. K-5 SE 0.1933; 6-8 SE 0.239; 9-12 SE 0.250 (these read as SE ratios, not survival rates; label carefully). 9th grade 1.851 reflects Lincoln Park inflow (interpretation, label as such). Grade-band projected totals: K-5 Total 523 (2024-25) / 525 (2025-26) / 529 (2026-27) / 543 (2027-28) / 514 (2028-29). 6-8 Total 260 / 246 / 235 / 220 / 258. 9-12 Total 614 / 628 / 621 / 655 / 655. K-12 Total 1,397 / 1,398 / 1,386 / 1,418 / 1,427. Historic K-12: 1,343 (2018-19) through 1,374 (2023-24). PK projections are asterisks: "PK projections are determined by the District and should be entered in the LRFP system." Do not quote PK projections from this table. Full LRFP detail in schedules/lrfp-projection.csv. Advertised enrollment (C-13, p. 93): Onroll Full 1,241.0 (10/15/2024 actual) / 1,241.0 (10/15/2025 actual) / 1,235.0 (10/15/2026 estimated); Onroll Shared 12.0 / 22.0 / 26.0; SpEd Full 273.0 / 256.0 / 305.0.
FY2025-26 tuition rates and adopted budget (A-01) [DOC]. BOE-Mtg_2025-04-28 Minutes excerpt, 2 pp: FY2025-26 tuition rates approved: Kindergarten $16,581; Grades 1-5 $17,713; Grades 6-8 $18,133; Grades 9-12 $18,985; Multiple Disabilities $52,016; Learning Language Disabilities $48,890; Preschool Disabled $69,794 (highest listed). A-01 also shows FY2025-26 adopted budget: General Fund $37,140,532; Special Revenue $3,533,769; Debt Service $1,425,300; Total $42,099,601; Tax Levy $24,230,476. Tentative-to-final change total $282,664, with line changes that foot (including Health Benefits increases: Special Prog $979,254 to $1,132,651, up $153,397; Extraordinary Services $302,198 to $349,304, up $47,106; Unallocated $3,247,720 to $3,843,968, up $596,248; total health increase $796,751). Also: Adjustment for Enrollment $351,671; Adjustment for Health Care Costs $93,658 (FY2025-26, distinct from the FY2026-27 $984,178 adjustment). ESC agreements for 2025-26 (Professional Support / Non-Public Services, Joint Transportation, Non Public Security Aid Addendum). Full detail in schedules/tuition-rates-2025-26.csv.
[DOC] Department-level figures for 2021–2026 were rebuilt from each year's own adopted budget (the 2022 and 2024 adopted budgets are posted on boonton.org DocumentCenter > Finance — View/4342, 93 pp.; View/5381, 74 pp. — correcting the earlier "not posted" claim). Provenance is labeled per figure in schedules/municipal-5yr-trends.csv. Correction: revision pass 2 had 2022/2023 and 2024/2025 swapped, caused by the systematic column transposition documented in §6.3. Old → new for each affected figure is in the CSV notes; the corrected series:
[DOC/INT] The town's adopted budgets have mislabeled year columns, but the defect is narrower than first described and year-inconsistent: it affects the revenue sheets (4–11) in the 2024–2026 budgets, not the appropriation sheets, and not every year's revenue sheets. On affected revenue sheets the preparer entered prior-year figures in the FIRST data column and current-year figures in the SECOND, opposite the printed headings (e.g., "2026 | 2025 | Realized in Cash in 2025"). This is proven, not inferred — a NJ municipal budget must balance, so whichever Sheet 11 column totals the Sheet 3 appropriation total is the budget year: for 2026, Sheet 3 (p.4, YEAR 2026) $17,769,364 = the Sheet 11 second-column total, while the first column totals $16,761,438 = Sheet 3a (p.5) "Summary of 2025 Appropriations … Adopted Budget" (2025 adopted $16,726,438 + the $35,000 Ch.159 insertion). Corroboration: (2) the 2026 levy-cap recap (p.7) labels the 2026 municipal levy $10,258,094 (= Sheet 11 second-column 6(a)) and 2025 $10,051,248 (= first column); (3) "Realized in Cash in 2025" equals the first column to the dollar on ~13 fixed lines (surplus 08-101, all Sheet 9 grants, capital surplus, debt-service reserve); (4) the 2025 adopted budget independently confirms 2025 surplus $2,653,000 and 2025 total $16,726,438. The 2021 and 2023 budgets' revenue Sheet 11s do NOT transpose (2021's "2021" column totals $14,955,669.45 = its Sheet 3 total) — sheet-by-sheet arbitration (visual read 2026-09-18) shows its first column headed "Anticipated 2023" carrying 2023's own figures (surplus $2,172,000; total $15,945,138.94 = the Sheet 3 total) and its second column headed "Anticipated 2022" carrying 2022's ($2,136,000; $15,405,905.00). So the preparer defect varies by year — which is why every figure in this review is now tied to its own year's document with column-assignment provenance, rather than to any assumed uniform rule. The appropriation sheets (12–30) follow their printed headings (first column = budget year): proven for 2021, where the "Total for 2020 As Modified" and "Expended 2020: Paid or Charged" columns arithmetically track the second data column on Sheets 17a/25/27 (impossible under a transposition); corroborated for 2022–2026 by cross-year coherence — each year's comparative column reproduces the next year's adopted column (Admin S&W $356,660 → $233,925 → $166,500 → $173,630 → $178,810; Police S&W $3,320,205 → $3,435,045 → $3,576,350 → $3,660,960) — and by the 2025 Sheet 27, whose $1,270,000 BAN-principal line funds the audit-confirmed 2025 BAN retirement (Note 9B). Consequences for this review: revision pass 2 applied the revenue-sheet transposition to appropriation lines too, swapping 2022/2023 and 2024/2025 throughout the five-year table, and its "correction" of the 2026 growth rate to +3.41% was itself wrong (its denominator was 2024's total). Every figure in schedules/municipal-5yr-trends.csv now carries a column-assignment provenance note, and the §6.2 series is rebuilt from each year's own adopted budget. This is a genuine audit contribution: the mislabeled revenue columns explain the Sheet 3 vs. Sheet 11/Sheet 30 confusion that recurred across passes. Related preparer errors: the 2024 budget's Sheet 27 comparative column (labeled "2023") erroneously shows $2,139,667.99 — that is 2025's debt-service figure; actual 2023 debt service is $1,281,894.56. The 2023 budget's Sheet 30 first column ($15,405,905) appears to be the 2022 as-amended basis rather than 2023's $15,945,138.94 Sheet 3 total. Arbitration status: the 2023 budget's Sheets 3/11/12/27 fully arbitrated 2026-09-18 (all figures matched the trend CSV). The 2021 workbook is now fully re-read (visual, 2026-09-18): Sheet 3 $14,955,669.45 verified arithmetically (10,883,331.82 + 2,237,337.63 + 1,835,000.00; revenues 5,196,697.63 + 9,360,698.82 + 398,273.00 = 14,955,669.45); revenue Sheet 11 (PDF p.23) follows its printed headings — not transposed in 2021 ("2021" column totals $14,955,669.45 = Sheet 3 total; "2020" column $14,794,786.92; surplus $2,278,000 in both columns, matching the trend CSV); Sheet 27: 2021 debt service $1,107,495.00 (530,000 + 401,260 + 112,895 + 63,340; arithmetic checks), 2020 comparative $1,112,982.87 — all matched the trend CSV. A full scan of the 73-page 2021 workbook found no $15,531,325.06 anywhere — the first-extraction figure is confirmed a misread, not a comparative figure. No remaining workbook-arbitration items.
Population / period / method / coverage. A 170-row contracts register was built from public records only (150 rows plus 20 minutes-award rows from the Oct 15, 2026 production, 2025-2026): schedules/contracts-register.csv (95 municipal rows: 50 annual-reorganization awards 2023–2026, 14 verified competitive-bid awards, 2 cooperative-purchasing awards, 12 supplemental awards, 1 unverified solid-waste lead; 55 school rows from three board meetings plus two reorganizations). Full build notes: working/i-school-procurement.md, working/j-municipal-procurement.md, working/k-procurement-rules.md (NJ thresholds verified year-by-year: bid $44,000 Jan 2023–Jun 2025 → $53,000 from Jul 1, 2025; quote $6,600 → $7,950; pay-to-play $17,500 throughout), working/n-procurement-screening.md. Vendor-payment and PO data were received Oct 15, 2026 as columnar PDF printouts (D-16, 695 pp; D-17, 236 pp). The columnar PDF text does not foot to a reliable grand total and PO/check numbers are not reliably separable in extraction, so a duplicate-payment or PO-validity screen was NOT run. [DOC] D-16 Vendor payment files: FY24 212 pp, FY25 209 pp, FY26 193 pp, FY27 81 pp (YTD). Title "Vendor History by PO / Account / Check". Periods: FY24 7/1/2023 to 6/30/2024; FY25 7/1/2024 to 6/30/2025; FY26 7/1/2025 to 6/30/2026; FY27 7/1/2026 to 6/30/2027. D-16 has NO printed grand total. A text parse does not produce a stable total (different parsing rules give materially different sums), so NO vendor totals are stated. Keep the standing limitation. D-16 "PO#" label counts in extracted text (approximate, state as label counts, not audited PO counts): FY24 2,289; FY25 2,203; FY26 2,148; FY27 1,175. [DOC] D-17 PO journals: FY25 94 pp, FY26 91 pp, FY27 51 pp (YTD). Printed Report totals foot internally (Payments plus Open equals Amount): FY25: Amount $52,995,899.77; Payments $52,831,796.82; Open $164,102.95. FY26: Amount $53,886,796.72; Payments $53,806,204.17; Open $80,592.55. FY27 YTD: Amount $38,242,782.18; Payments $10,733,413.20; Open $27,509,368.98. D-17 totals are NOT vendor-payment totals and are NOT comparable to the budget: the journals include payroll POs (for example, FY26 "BOONTON BOE Payroll" PO 600000 $23,786,154.76) and contra/negative PO entries (for example, FY26 entries ($840,908.51), ($680.40), ($1,601.60)). State this caveat with the totals. D-17 PO counts: do NOT state a PO count from 6-digit numbers, because PO numbers and check numbers share the format and are not reliably separable in the text. State page counts and report totals instead. [DOC] D-19 Account Code Listing: 73 pp, 1,640 distinct account-code rows, no dollar figures. It maps account codes to descriptions and budget line numbers. [DOC] Per-vendor examples, each from a single D-16 block that foots internally (Orders equals Checks plus Balance), in schedules/vendor-examples.csv. Do not present these as totals of all spending. [GAP] Duplicate-payment or PO-validity screen: NOT run. Record as not yet run because the columnar PDF text does not foot to a reliable grand total and PO/check numbers are not reliably separable in extraction. Do not claim a screen was run. [DOC] D-16 vendor history contains per-student initials in some out-of-district placement descriptions. Initials are not full names, but they are not quoted here or in any schedule; quote vendor block totals only. Per-vendor block examples that foot internally are in schedules/vendor-examples.csv; no vendor grand totals are stated.
Results — no findings of favoritism, bid-splitting, conflicts, or procurement-law violations are made. The register documents: a competitively bid capital program (1–14 bidders per tabulated award; the largest single award, the $4.5M wellfield project, drew 8 bidders); a stable annual professional-services roster lawfully awarded without bidding under the professional-services exemption (N.J.S.A. 40A:11-5(1)(a)(i) / 18A:18A-5(a)(1)); uniform non-fair-and-open/BED treatment across the annual group resolutions; and two documented no-bid paths handled through statutory mechanisms (negotiation after two no-bid MCESC advertisements; bid rejection with readvertisement).
Observations recorded as leads, not findings:
What a real screen still needs: bid tabs and executed contracts for the 14 competitive-bid awards; proposals, determinations of value, and BED certifications behind the group resolutions; the school "Anticipated Contracts 2024-2025" list; change-order/amendment/emergency-purchase logs for both entities; vendor-payment and PO exports 2023–2026. These are drafted as expanded OPRA bundles in records-requests.md — drafts only, nothing submitted. No fraud rate is estimated and no exception is claimed. Pay-to-play donor screen (2023–2025 cycles — COMPLETE 2026-09-18). 60 candidate entity records checked via the ELEC viewer (Location "----BOONTON TOWN", per-candidate Summary Data → Contribution Detailed). 2025 (19 entities): all reported $0.00 (Form A-1 short/affidavit or no reports filed) except Kimberly Mazzei (Mun Dem General): $350.00 total — ELECT WOMEN NJ (business/corp), 09/12/2025, $250.00; WARMINGTON, JACK (self-employed/homemaker, individual), 09/29/2025, $100.00. Neely (Mun Rep General) verified $0.00, A-1 filed 10/16/2025 (eid=481315). 2024 (18 entities): only three entities received contributions — Melissa Disalvo (Mun Dem General): $605.00, 9 itemized individual/currency donations (all $200 or less); Benjamin Weisman (Mun Dem General): $7,200.00, 22 itemized (includes Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund $500, Greater NJ Carpenters PEC $1,000, Millennials for NJ $650, Dougherty 2025 candidate committee $500); Weisman (Mun Dem Primary): $4,000.00, 11 itemized (all individuals, $250–$500). The other 15 entities (Balan, Couch, DeVenezia P/G; Disalvo Primary; Salvo General; Wade General; Wekilsky P/G): $0.00; Joyce, Katsakos, LeFebvre (school board), Salvo Primary: no filed reports. 2023 (23 entities): only three entities received contributions — John Holly (Mun Dem General): $500.00, 1 itemized (MUSTAFA, SAMY A, Ramapo College professor, $500, 10/03/2023); James A. Lynch (Mayor, Rep, Primary): $7,100.00, 12 itemized (includes BOSWELL ENGINEERING INC $500, 06/12/2023; Lynch self $1,000; Neely, William (Zoetis) $1,000); Lynch (Mayor, Rep, General): $22,231.70, 22 itemized lines (includes Lynch self-loans totaling $1,801.70; Morris County Republican Committee $2,000; a $10,480.00 "VARIOUS FROM 5/22/2023 TO 10/20/2023" aggregate NOT broken out by donor; Boswell Engineering Inc $500 again — the same donation appearing in both the Primary and General entity reports, so do NOT double-count). The other 20 entities: $0.00; Darling, O'Halloran (school board), Meehan P/G: no filed reports. Cross-check against the 2026 vendor/principal list (all 3 years, 56 itemized donors): no exact matches to any vendor/principal on the 2026 list. ONE name-similarity lead — "WARMINGTON, JACK" ($100 to Mazzei, 09/29/2025) vs vendor "Robert Warmington" (public defender). Different first name; NOT a match — logged as a lead only. NEW LEAD: Boswell Engineering Inc donated $500 to Lynch's 2023 mayoral campaign; Boswell is NOT on the 2026 professional-services vendor list. Logged as a lead only: check via records whether Boswell Engineering appears in town vendor payments or engineering contracts (see records-requests.md bundle (k) item 4 — Boswell 26-149/150/151) before drawing any inference; do not speculate. Limitations: donor street addresses are not shown in the ELEC Contribution Detailed view (employer/occupation only); addresses exist only in the filed report PDFs, which were not opened — kept as a possible follow-up (records-requests.md bundle (i)). Conclusion: no pay-to-play finding from any of the 2023–2025 cycles on the evidence seen. Financial-disclosure statements (partial): fds.nj.gov filer rosters for 2023–2025 retrieved plus 6 fully-read 2025 statements (Yazdi, Lynch, Balan, DeVenezia, Hettrich, Minson — see people-and-oversight.md §5c). Noted leads: Balan is a practicing architect (firm disclosed — check client list only via records if the firm appears in vendor payments); Semrau (town attorney and 2026 vendor) statement pending. All associations are leads, not findings.
Small contracts (A-02) [DOC]. BOE-Mtg_2026-06-08 Minutes excerpt, 1 p, p. 15: Medical Services Contract with Dr. Arnold Pallay, MD, Changebridge Medical Associates PA, Montville, for 2026-27, $18,720.00. Waste and Recycling Services Contract renewal with Waste Management of Ewing for 2026-27 at a 3.5 percent increase for $33,383.40. ESC Professional Support / Non-Public Services Agreement for 2026-27. Auditor appointment Lerch, Vinci and Bliss $34,700.00 (duplicates full minutes). Anticipated Contracts 2026-2027 (attachment not in excerpt). Reserve deposits: SBA may transfer up to $1,500,000 EACH into Capital Reserve, Tuition Reserve and/or Maintenance Reserve in June. Waste Management discrepancy to flag: minutes renewal $33,383.40 vs D-17 FY27 PO 700030 $34,030.24 (Payments $11,774.60, Open $22,255.64), difference $646.84. Do not resolve; flag as unreconciled. Pallay tie: D-17 FY27 PO 700031 Changebridge Medical Associates $18,720.00, Paid $3,744.00, Open $14,976.00, matches the minutes $18,720 exactly. Full detail in schedules/tuition-rates-2025-26.csv and schedules/contracts-register.csv.
Employment contract terms (E-23) [DOC]. Headline salaries are stated in §6.1 and the executive summary; add only verified non-salary terms below. All from employment contracts in official capacity. Do NOT publish the private home address that appears in the Gardberg contract (see methods-and-limits.md). Full detail in schedules/contract-terms.csv. Gardberg (Business Administrator / Board Secretary), contract July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, county-approved May 5, 2026: Salary $180,522 plus longevity pay $2,100. Health waiver: lesser of 25 percent or $5,000 of the cost of coverage waived. Health and dental: district pays full premium for selected plans, subject to Tier 4 Chapter 78 contribution. Vacation: 21 days annually; up to 10 unused days carried over one year or forfeited; payout on separation/retirement up to 30 accumulated unused vacation days at daily rate on a 260-day work year, within 30 days. Sick: 12 paid sick days per year, accumulates per N.J.S.A. 18A:30-7; payout on certified retirement at daily rate on a 260-day year, capped at $15,000 per N.J.S.A. 18A:30-3.5, within 30 days. Personal: 4 paid personal days per year (unused credited to sick bank, max 15 sick days accrued in one year per 18A:30-7). Bereavement: 5 days immediate family, 3 days relative, 1 day friend/close acquaintance. Tuition reimbursement: max $5,500, coursework must be approved and job-related, 100 percent on proof of completion with grade B or better; graduate credit only if it culminates in a graduate degree from a regionally accredited institution. Phone: if personal smartphone used, reimbursement up to $125.00 per month for data/telephone. Professional dues, job-related expenses, professional development per contract terms. Valle (Superintendent), contract July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2031, county-approved Aug 31, 2026: Salary schedule: 2026-27 $230,000; 2027-28 $236,900; 2028-29 $244,007; 2029-30 $251,327; 2030-31 $258,867 (contract states 3 percent per year for the last 4 years). Longevity $2,100 per year, counted as salary with payroll deductions including TPAF. Total Annual Salary including longevity (contract cost sheet, p. 16): $232,100; $239,000; $246,107; $253,427; $260,967. Auto-renewal: contract automatically renews for 5 years, expiring June 30, 2036, unless the Board reappoints for a different term, notifies by July 1, 2030 that he will not be reappointed (employment ends June 30, 2031), the contract is terminated before July 1, 2030, or it is nullified by law. Sick: 12 days annually, accumulates; payout at retirement at 1/260th of annual salary, max $15,000. Vacation: 21 working days per year; max 10 days carried over one year or forfeited; payout on separation at daily rate on a 260-day year within 30 days. Cost sheet caps: Max Paid for Unused Vacation Leave $27,673 (2026-27) rising to $31,115 (2030-31). Max Paid for Unused Sick Leave $15,000 each year. Health waiver: $5,000 flat for waiving coverage. Health/dental: district pays full premium for selected plans, subject to contributions required by State law. Tuition: max $6,500 per year, Board-approved, job-related, part of a degree program, 100 percent on proof of completion with grade B or better. Cell phone: Board purchases smartphone and reimburses monthly data/business-call charges, max $130.00 per month (cost sheet $1,560 per year, consistent). Contract cost sheet (p. 16): Total Premiums $41,153 rising to $46,318 by 2030-31 (Health Insurance $39,793 rising to $44,787; Dental $1,360 rising to $1,531; Prescription, Vision, Disability $0). Employee Contribution to Premiums $11,869 rising to $13,358. Total Health Benefits Compensation (net) $29,284 rising to $32,960. Total Other Compensation $18,685 per year (Travel $3,500; Professional Development $1,800; Tuition $6,500; Dues $3,500; Subscriptions $825; Cell $1,560; Computer $1,000). Total Contract Costs $322,743; $331,344; $340,203; $349,328; $358,727. On-roll students as of 10-15 of prior year on the cost sheet: 1,522. Principals: E-23 principal contracts file is UNEXTRACTED (image-only). Do NOT quote principal contract terms beyond what is already in the audit docs (Klebez $171,169 plus $2,100 longevity; Nosal $143,639 plus $3,675; Schessler $166,950 plus $1,575). Those figures stay as stated; do not expand them from the unextracted file.
Board minutes bulk (F-26) [DOC]. Individual files: 81 (2023: 25, 2024: 23, 2025: 21, 2026: 12). Compiled volume: "BOE Minutes 2025 All meetings.pdf", 180 pp, duplicates the individual 2025 minutes (verified by shared distinctive content, including Jan 6, 2025 election results). Do not double-count the compiled volume as separate meetings. [DOC] HIB: Minutes record board affirmations of the Superintendent findings/recommendations on numbered HIB complaints by building (for example, BHS #4-5, JHS #8). Numbering resets each school year. The minutes do NOT state whether each numbered complaint was substantiated. Do NOT present HIB complaint counts as substantiated incidents. Do NOT state an annual HIB total from the minutes set. One verifiable self-assessment figure: Oct 9, 2023 minutes state "HIB Self-Assessment for Determining Grades: 77/78 at each school." [DOC] Contract awards mined from 2025-2026 minutes (all via cooperative purchasing or stated contract vehicles; list as minutes evidence, not as executed-contract proof), 20 rows added to schedules/contracts-register.csv: Apr 28, 2025: Waterproofing Technologies Inc, roofing at BHS, $973,776.75, per ESCNJ/AEPA 21D. Apr 28, 2025: Hertz Furniture, School Street School Cafeteria Tables, $127,607.45, per Keystone Purchasing Network KPN-202012-02C. June 9, 2025: CDW Government $127,490.32 for servers and $41,729.00 (second contract, description not in the excerpt), per State Contract / Co-op ESCNJ/AEPA-22G. ESC of Morris County Cooperative Bid Purchasing Service agreement $10,867.00. July 14, 2025: CDW Government $42,909.84 for computers (minutes print "$42,909,84" with comma for the decimal; recorded as $42,909.84), per ESCNJ/AEPA-22G. Vivacity Tech PBC $78,776.00 for Chromebooks, per NASPO NJ-HP M0483-24-TELE-72087. Realtime Information Technology one-year renewal $50,991.04 per N.J.S.A. 18A:18A-5(a)(19). Amazon contracts for 2024-2025 totaling $82,919.46. Nov 10, 2025: Hunter Technologies (Tru Stor LLC), five-year contract, phone upgrades and carrier services $185,148.49 plus security upgrades $73,955.00 ($259,103.49 combined), per NJ State Contract T-1316 Schedule B, effective 12/1/2025 to 11/30/2030, paid over five years. M-1 and Comprehensive Maintenance Plan submission for 2025-26. Feb 9, 2026: Hannon Floors, JHS flooring, $46,766.35, per NJ State Contract Co-op 65MCECCPS, ESCNJ 23/24-14. Matches C-12/D-16 PO 601284. Apr 13, 2026: Vivacity Tech PBC $78,840.00 for Chromebooks; CDW $95,345.00 for Chromebooks, per ESCNJ/AEPA 026-D. June 8, 2026: Hannon Floors, JHS flooring 2026-27, $182,745.10, same co-op. Student Transportation of America $101,065.00 for busing to school-related activities in 2025-26, per ESC of Morris County bid. Scholarship awards $12,450 (June 8, 2026). Sept 14, 2026: Passon's Sports / BSN Sports, physical education and athletic supplies 2026-27, aggregate $74,001.95, via Educational Data Services Cooperative Pricing System Bid 13321. Cooperative Sports Agreement renewal, Ice Hockey with Mountain Lakes BOE, $6,000.00 for 2026-27. [LEAD] Roofing discrepancy to flag: minutes Apr 28, 2025 award $973,776.75 vs C-12/D-16 PO 600001 $884,751.64, difference $89,025.11. Do not resolve; possible explanations (ceiling vs partial PO, change order) are speculation. Flag as unreconciled. [DOC] Donations (board acceptances, summarize without private donor family names): Give Back School Supplies bags 356 (Jan 2023), 412 (May 2023), 400 (Nov 2023); novels valued at $600; $400 in prizes (Dec 2023); Boonton PTA $1,500 (Oct 2023, organization); $1,000 (May 12, 2025); $300 (Nov 24, 2025); $150 (Feb 9, 2026); $50 ACME gift card (June 8, 2026, organization). Do NOT name private individual or family donors. No donation is a finding. [DOC] Tuition/residency: Dec 16, 2024 minutes approve the Send-Receive Agreement with Lincoln Park BOE for 2025-2026 through 2029-2030. No individual residency decisions were found in the grep; only Residency/Truancy Officer appointments and policy mentions. State that. [DOC] Personnel actions: minutes contain many appointments, resignations, and leaves. Summarize by category only. Do NOT list individual staff names beyond officials already named in the audit. Do NOT turn personnel actions into findings. [DOC] Public comment: minutes contain public-comment questions and claims (for example, lawsuit question, AC rollout, dogs/e-bikes, teacher attendance, parent access to records at age 18). Do NOT turn any public-comment claim into a finding. State that public-comment items were not treated as findings. [DOC] Field trips: minutes contain many field-trip approvals (keyword counts: "field trip" 156, "Field Trip" 143 across individual minutes, overlapping). Summarize as a category; do not list trips individually. [DOC] Change orders: "change order" appears only 3 times lowercase plus 2 capitalized in the minutes set. State that no change-order log was found in the minutes; the change-order log remains denied/unproduced (item 29).
Municipal Current Fund [DOC/CALC] (regulatory basis, CY2025): balance 1/1/2025 $5,259,308 + excess in revenue $2,806,945 − utilized in 2025 budget $2,653,000 = $5,413,253 at 12/31/2025 (net +$153,945). 2025 operations fully replenished the appropriated surplus (replenishment ≈105.8%). The 2026 budget uses $3,058,000 (+$405,000 vs. the 2025 amended utilization of $2,653,000; the 2025 original adopted surplus was $2,372,000 — $281,000 of in-year amendments brought 2025 utilization to $2,653,000, which 2025 operations fully replenished, adding $153,945). W-27 RESOLVED: the 2026 figure is $3,058,000 — the revenue reconciliation requires it (total $17,769,364 − verified levy $10,842,468 = $6,926,896 non-tax required; the other non-tax components sum to $3,868,896, so surplus must be $3,058,000); the competing $2,653,000 read was the 2025 comparative column (2025 amended utilization), misread under the systematic column transposition (§6.3). [INT] Planned fund-balance use is rising over the five-year series ($2,172,000 in 2023 → $3,058,000 in 2026 original), which warrants monitoring against replenishment. Neither planned reserve use alone nor the rising prior-year balance settles sustainability: the $5.41M is regulatory-basis fund balance, not unrestricted cash — it sits with receivable reserves and a $480,000 Special Emergency–Reassessment deferred charge on the balance sheet. Water utility balance $3,717,110 and sewer $1,773,561 at 12/31/2025 provide additional (restricted) cushions.
RUT ($1.5M): covered in §3.5 — a non-cash, non-redirectable appropriation sized to the whole levy so the town can remit school/county/library levies at 100%.
School reserves [DOC]: budgetary fund balance $3,010,941 at 6/30/2025 (capital reserve $828,903 + $260,000 designated; excess surplus $352,028 + $387,424 designated; unassigned $751,442); GAAP fund balance $1,583,615. Expenditures exceeded revenues in 3 of 5 years — a modest recurring gap worth monitoring, not a crisis. Capital reserve trajectory: $963,903 (6/30/2024) → $1,088,903 (6/30/2025) → $828,903 (6/30/2026 est.) → $820,111 (6/30/2027 est.) — the last a projection assuming no deposits/withdrawals beyond the budgeted $8,792 (§9). C-13 Recap of Balances (pp. 15-18): Capital Reserve ending 6/30: $1,088,903 (2024-25 audited) / $828,903 (2025-26 revised) / $820,111 (2026-27 proposed). Capital Reserve Max Local Amount (memo) $50,909,217 (LRFP). Maintenance Reserve ending $50,000 flat. Tuition Reserve ending $0. Legal Reserve ending $0 in 2026-27 (was $739,452 then $352,028). Unassigned ending $746,531 in 2026-27. Capital Reserve withdrawals: $260,000 in 2025-26, $8,792 in 2026-27.
Debt [DOC]: municipal 2026 adopted debt service $1,295,146 (the 2026 budget advertisement showed $1,274,702 = $920,000 principal + $354,702 interest — $20,444 basis difference vs. the adopted workbook); the 2025 adopted debt service of $2,139,667.99 is explained as a one-time BAN payoff (monitoring W-26 resolved): 45-925 BAN/Capital Notes $1,270,000 (vs. $100,000 in 2024) funded the retirement of a $1,171,000 General Capital BAN (matured 6/5/2025) plus a $133,000 Sewer Utility BAN, with $605,000 from the Reserve for Payment of Debt Service (2025 audit Notes 9A/9B, pp.54-58; see §6.2) — open question (W-28): $1,270,000 appropriated vs. $1,171,000 retired leaves $99,000 unexplained; school GO bonds $15.205M → $11.120M (FY21→FY25) with debt service ≈3.5% of noncapital expenditures and falling; school FY27 debt service $1,425,500 (local levy $1,011,624 + state aid $364,599 + fund balance $49,277). Outstanding school serial bonds ~$15.9M (net of premium) at 6/30/2025; a 2023 issuance appears in the record — the bond-financed project list and remaining authorization need the ACFR I-1/I-2 schedules. Debt-service reconciliation item, flagged not resolved: D-16 Depository Trust FY26 $1,425,300 (Interest $430,300 / Principal $995,000) vs. budget/A-03 $1,425,500 (Interest $390,500 / Principal $1,035,000), a $200 difference with a $40,000 interest/principal shift. Unreconciled, not a finding.
Library [DOC, README-sourced]. Source limitation: all four library PDFs are UNEXTRACTED. The library README (records/2026-09-23-library-opra/README.md) is the only source for the figures below. Add them to the audit docs ONLY as library figures with README sourcing and the unextracted caveat. Do not quote beyond what the README states. FY2026 adopted budget (QuickBooks P&L overview, approved Dec 2025): $588,800, balanced, net $0. Income: Town Appropriation $584,300 (99.2 percent), State Aid $4,500. Expenses per README: Personnel $358,450 (61 percent); Library Operations $136,250; Property $81,900; Administration $12,200. Town appropriation flow per README: monthly check from town; Feb 2026 minutes note it rose from $45,167.38 to $48,697.83 per month ($584,374 per year, matching the minimum library tax in the 2026 municipal budget). README-internal $74 difference: budget Town Appropriation $584,300 vs $584,374 annualized monthly figure. Flag as a $74 README-internal difference, not a finding. Cash and reserves per README (minutes-sourced): Dec 2025 cash $426,502.18 (about 9 months of expenses); May 2026 cash $355,041.96, of which $220,000 moved into CDs via Perennis Financial Planners at 3.75 percent (breakable, no penalty): $120k (6 mo) from Valley Bank operating, $50k (6 mo) from Santander Trustee account, $50k (3 mo) from VB grant account. Jan 2026 proposal to set aside $11,115 (sick-time payout liability) in a 6-month CD. $650 Provident Bank reconciliation discrepancy: per README, Mar 2026 treasurer's report describes it as an "as yet unresolved fraud situation with Provident Bank." Treat as a LEAD, not a finding. Small amount, unresolved as of Mar 2026 per README. Open question: current status. Do not overstate. FY2025 close per README: operating surplus $26,773.37; other income $21,835.59. Controls per README: payroll bi-weekly report signed by Director, approved at monthly trustee meetings; Town administers payroll; bill list approved monthly by Treasurer and voted by the Board; June 2026 auditor commentary (Lerch Vinci and Bliss): Treasurer AND Director must sign payment vouchers above $1,000; Director must sign approval for hourly-employee payroll (already begun); capital reserve transfers need minute approval. Library board: 7 members per Town Code 167-10 / N.J.S.A. 40:54-9; no vacancies as of 9/23/2026 response. Do NOT expand the trustee roster in the audit docs beyond what is needed; prior docs already cover the library procedure. Keep library additions to figures plus the $650 lead. Full detail in schedules/library-figures.csv.
Outlook [INT]: a three-to-five-year model was not built — it would require records now partly in hand (final FY27 school budget retrieved; benefits partially decomposed; Lincoln Park terms verified, methodology still denied; municipal department trends rebuilt). Sensitivity cases should cover enrollment/tuition, aid formulas, salary/benefit costs, and capital needs once those inputs exist. Do not project a structural deficit from one anomalous year.
FY2027 advertised capital budget — reconciled [DOC/CALC]: GF capital outlay $489,525 (all in Facilities Acquisition & Construction 12-000-400-XXX; equipment $0). The Capital Projects table lists three items: Boonton HS Roof Replacement $475,000, Local Recreation Improvement Grant $8,792, and a third project $180,000 (neither state-grant-eligible, no referendum) = $663,792 in Construction Services. [DOC] The $5,733 is the Assessment for Debt Service on SDA Funding (line 76210), not unitemized. Total Capital Outlay adopted $669,525 = Construction Services $663,792 plus SDA assessment $5,733 (A-03; C-13, pp. 22-24). Watch item W-14 closes on this basis. Capital POs (C-12). C-12_Capital projects FY26.pdf (1 p, period 7/1/2025 to 6/30/2026, orders over $2,000): Report totals Amount $1,266,575.98; Payments $1,219,809.63; Open $46,766.35. Footing: $1,219,809.63 plus $46,766.35 equals $1,266,575.98. Itemized POs in schedules/capital-pos.csv: BHS Partial Re-roofing, Weatherproofing Technologies, PO 600001, $884,751.64 paid in full; eRate Cat2 WAP-Licensing, CDW, PO 600002 $128,610.00 and PO 600320 $23,989.50, both paid in full; Cabling eRate, Aspire, PO 600004 $98,787.94 paid in full; SSS Bathroom Resinous Floor, JAS Coatings, PO 600099 $20,850.00; Partitions SSS, Benco, PO 600173 $14,200.00; SSS Plumbing Supplies, HD Supply, PO 600343 $4,124.14; SSS Plumbing Work Bathrooms, Robert Mahan, PO 600392 $5,844.00; Water Heater CST, Robert Mahan, PO 600393 $4,600.00; Door JHS Room 112, Bildisco, PO 601235 $2,873.00; Intercoms BHS-SSS, Let's Think Wireless, PO 601553 $26,461.41; Additional strobes, Hunter Technologies, PO 601568 $4,718.00. The only open FY26 capital PO is Flooring JHS, Hannon, PO 601284, $46,766.35, $0 paid. C-12_Capital projects FY27.pdf (1 p, period 7/1/2026 to 6/30/2027, orders over $0.00): Report totals Amount $225,859.34; Payments $206,354.14; Open $19,505.20. Footing: $206,354.14 plus $19,505.20 equals $225,859.34. Flooring JHS 26-27, Hannon, PO 700001, $182,745.10 paid in full per the report Payments column. Cross-report note: D-17 FY26 Hannon PO 601284 line is ambiguous in column order in extraction and appears to conflict with D-16 and C-12 open status. Rely on D-16 and C-12 for open status ($0 paid, $46,766.35 open). Do not cite D-17 for Hannon payment status. Revenue side: only $8,792 comes from capital reserve; ~$480,733 is funded from current operating revenue (tax levy) — the roof is budgeted from operating funds, not reserves (arithmetically implied, medium confidence).
Capital reserve [DOC]: $820,111 at 6/30/2027 is a projection, not cash ($828,903 − $8,792, assuming no deposits or other withdrawals). Restricted per NJAC 6A:23A-14.1 to LRFP capital projects. The ACFR cites management's estimate of $50,909,217 in uncompleted LRFP project costs at 6/30/2025 (~62× the reserve) — a long-range planning estimate, not an obligation or a "backlog." The May 2020 LRFP amendment's 5-year validity expired May 4, 2025; no newer amendment was found [GAP].
Cooling [GAP]: no building/room-level cooling inventory, equipment condition, temperature data, or cost estimates were found in retrievable records. No "no AC" claim is made. Building baseline (2020 LRFP): 4 schools, 5 buildings; all proposed work classified as renovation/system-actions only. Roof–cooling coordination (shared penetrations/design) is a contingent recommendation — neither precondition (roof scope/schedule confirmed; cooling need established) is met. Do not presume the roof project should be cancelled.
ESIP/incentives [GAP]: the ESIP program page and Butler BOE RFP page could not be verified this session (429/JS-rendered). Butler is at most a format/transparency example, not Boonton cost evidence. No "pays for itself" claim is supportable without an investment-grade baseline, savings analysis, and financing costs.
Maintenance [DOC/INT]: per-pupil O&M $1,562 (FY25 actual) → $1,728 (FY26 revised) → $1,767 (FY27 proposed) (C-13, p. 85; the $1,734 figure printed here earlier is corrected); maintenance reserve flat at $50,000. The ACFR's Schedule J-19 (required maintenance by building) was received in the Oct 15, 2026 production (C-14) as a 1-page excerpt, but extraction is garbled, including the 2025 column (fragments such as "$305,592" plus garbled characters and "$122,387" with unclear column mapping). NO J-19 figures are quoted; the fragments are cited only as evidence that the extraction is garbled. Figures are not quotable until the PDF is read visually or re-extracted. Low spending is treated as a question requiring building-condition evidence — not proof of efficiency or underinvestment.
[DOC] NJDOE 2025–26 proposed "Total Budgetary Comparative Per Pupil Cost" (current expense exclusive of tuition, transportation, residential costs, judgments; admin and O&M are components of the total): Boonton $21,340; Butler $21,140; Chathams $20,772; Mountain Lakes $30,760 — recomputed from pupcst26.csv and cross-checked to each district's UFB. Boonton is the lowest of the four in administration ($1,867) and O&M ($1,583). [CALC] Boonton is $200 above Butler (+0.9%), $568 above Chathams (+2.7%), $9,420 below Mountain Lakes (−30.6%); but its classroom-instruction ($12,703) + support-services ($4,431) components exceed Butler's by $2,221 (+14.9%).
Peer selection (rule-based) [INT]: Butler — keep as primary peer (same county, K–12, closest scale 1,206 vs. 1,596, same 3-school footprint, same receiving-district structure; DFG difference disclosed against flattering Boonton). Mountain Lakes — keep with structural flag (44% higher per pupil; $16.25M tuition revenue changes its tax price). Chathams — demote to regional context (2.3× enrollment, DFG J, essentially no receiving structure). A full statewide cohort screen was not completed. [INT] The data do not show Boonton as an obvious local high-spending outlier — a statement about relative position on one definition, not a finding of efficiency or prudence. 2026–27 update: only Mountain Lakes retrieved ($33,095, +7.6%); do not mix years. Advertised per-pupil cost series (C-13, p. 85, one definition): Total Budgetary Comparative Per Pupil Cost Proposed 2026-27 $23,071; Revised 2025-26 $22,616; Original 2025-26 $21,340; Actual 2024-25 $21,246; Actual 2023-24 $20,298. Components Proposed 2026-27: Classroom Instruction $13,519 (Salaries and Benefits $12,903; General Supplies and Textbooks $441; Purchased Services $176); Support Services $5,047 (Salaries and Benefits $4,709); Administrative Costs $1,953 (Salaries and Benefits $1,613); Operations and Maintenance $1,767 (Salaries and Benefits $907); Extracurricular $761; Equipment $0; Legal $71.
Structural fact [DOC]: Boonton (301 received, $6.07M tuition), Butler (178, $4.55M), and Mountain Lakes (361, $16.25M) are all receiving districts — tuition revenue offsets the local levy without reducing reported per-pupil cost.
[DOC/CALC] Raw gap: $17,769,364 vs. $14,903,864.74 = $2,865,499 (19.2%). Adjusted operating base (researcher-defined: minus debt service and RUT): Boonton $14,994,662 vs. Butler $14,144,764.74 = $849,897 (~6.0%). Correction: Butler's 2026 debt service is $219,100 (bonds; +$15,000 note interest), not the earlier $297,576 — the "~6.6%" lead is superseded by ~6.0–6.1%. [INT] The adjustment is illustrative: debt burden and collection risk are real costs and stay in the overall assessment. Per-capita and functional comparisons (police/population, streets/lane-mile, refuse/household) need data not yet retrieved.
[DOC] Census Annual Survey of School System Finances, published May 7, 2026, reporting FY2024: NY $31,918; NJ $27,234; CT $26,316; US $17,619; ID $11,060. [CALC] NJ is 54.6% above the national figure. The release states values are not inflation- or COL-adjusted. [INT] Context only: labor costs, student need, benefit accounting, and service scope all differ. Do not compare the Census $27,234 (all NJ schools, FY2024, current spending) with NJDOE's $21,340 (one district, 2025–26 proposed, comparative cost) as if year and definition matched.
[DOC] Boonton 2023–24 NJDOE district report: enrollment 1,516; economically disadvantaged 34.1%; students with disabilities 19.7%; chronic absenteeism 17.0% (target 14.9%, not met); 4-yr graduation 91.2% (state 87.7%); NJSLA ELA 67.9% (state 52.2%), math 45.0% (state 40.2%); growth percentiles met standards. [INT] No causal link between spending and outcomes is asserted; lower spending is not treated as inherently better. Peer outcome data on aligned definitions/years is still needed.
BHS attendance as of 10/14/2026 (C-15) [DOC]. C-15_Attendance Report by PTC_BHS_2026-10-14.pdf, 3 pp, Report 1003 as of 10/14/2026, School Year Attendance Totals for BHS in 2026-27. State the as-of date. Do NOT quote the % ATT or % NOT Tardy columns; header mapping is ambiguous in extraction. Quote Total, Active, Days Possible, Days Present, Days Absent, Days Tardy. Do NOT label residence codes 2380 or 2650 as specific districts; the report gives codes only. Full detail in schedules/bhs-attendance-2026-10-14.csv. Residence 0450 (p. 1), TOTAL row: Total 356, Active 332, Days Possible 60,973, Days Present 60,551, Days Absent 422, Days Tardy 734. Grade 09 (PTC 09): Total 104, Active 93, Possible 17,051, Present 16,979, Absent 72, Tardy 114. Grade 10 (PTC 10): Total 93, Active 87, Possible 16,001, Present 15,885, Absent 116, Tardy 255. Grade 11 (PTC 11): Total 79, Active 74, Possible 13,583, Present 13,464, Absent 119, Tardy 185. Grade 12 (PTC 12): Total 73, Active 71, Possible 13,050, Present 12,951, Absent 99, Tardy 166. Small PTC 20/23 rows (1 to 2 students each) are included in the TOTAL row; do not present them as separate grade cohorts. Residence 2650 (p. 3), TOTAL row: Total 253, Active 249, Possible 45,837, Present 45,550, Absent 287, Tardy 181. Grade detail: Grade 09 (PTC 09) Total 49, Active 48, Possible 8,832, Present 8,788, Absent 44, Tardy 14; Grade 10 Total 59, Active 58, Possible 10,672, Present 10,610, Absent 62, Tardy 31; Grade 11 Total 66, Active 65, Possible 11,960, Present 11,890, Absent 70, Tardy 54; Grade 12 Total 73, Active 72, Possible 13,269, Present 13,165, Absent 104, Tardy 80. Residence 2380 (p. 2): 1 student, Grade 12, 184 days possible and present, 0 absent, 0 tardy. State as a single-student row, not a cohort.
Twenty evidence-supported options are documented in schedules/improvement-options.csv, each with problem, evidence basis, implementation requirements, gross/net effects, upfront cost, recurring vs. one-time benefit, uncertainty, legal/contractual restrictions, service impacts, difficulty, dependencies, responsible entity, and measurement. Summary:
Control hygiene (low cost, recurring benefit): named payment-deadline ownership with backup (unemployment claims); documentation retention; receivable reconciliations with sign-off; charter payments on the NJDOE schedule (CAP received Oct 15, 2026 for findings 2025-01 through 2025-04; implementation pending FY2026 audit); same/next-day deposit rule with dual custody (John Hill); annual PO validity review; fixed-asset appraisal engagement (the one material-cost item — procurement required); Library Director timesheet approvals; public corrective-action tracking (post CAPs and quarterly status); reconciled budget presentations (fix the $1.23M category mapping).
Measure-before-managing (no savings estimated): benefit/insurance rate decompositions for both entities (Horizon renewal rates and Ch. 44 medical-plan actuals now tabulated; enrollment-by-tier decomposition still missing); ESIP feasibility only after an investment-grade energy audit; shared-service inventory to verify claimed cooperative arrangements before proposing new ones; police personnel-cost bridge (base/overtime/other) once 2026 line items exist; Lincoln Park agreement monitoring (terms verified, rate methodology denied as confidential) with enrollment/tuition scenarios; food-service cost-recovery review; formal fund-balance policy with replenishment rule.
[INT] No dollar savings are estimated where records don't support one — most options are marked "not quantifiable from public records." That is itself a finding: the major cost drivers cannot be managed until they are measured. Overlapping or conditional savings are never added together. No option assumes classroom cuts; reinvestment opportunities are identified alongside cost control.
This report is delivered with: executive-summary.md (readable summary with confidence levels); schedules/ (25 CSV workbooks: the original 12 (source register; tax-allocation reconciliation; school 5-yr trends nominal, real, and staffing/enrollment; municipal 5-yr trends; fund-to-consolidated bridges; presentation-to-account crosswalks; peer comparisons; findings register; improvement options; contracts register) plus 13 added Oct 16, 2026 (NJ927 confirmations; charter payments; student-activity contras; benefits decomposition; FY27 account totals; FY27 budget lines; capital POs; LRFP projection; BHS attendance as of 10/14/2026; tuition rates 2025-26; contract terms; vendor examples; library figures)); people-and-oversight.md (authority map, compensation, dual roles, name-match leads, ELEC/ethics frameworks, unresolved items); monitoring-plan.md (discrepancy watchlist, release calendar, quarterly check procedure); records-requests.md (bounded draft OPRA-style bundles (a)–(l) plus an executable transaction-testing plan — drafts only, nothing submitted); methods-and-limits.md (what could not be tested and why); and working/ (the workstream papers with full citations).
Standards applied. Primary sources wherever possible; every material factual claim cited with retrievable source + page/section/table; independent calculations labeled and reproducible; original/revised/actual/forecast labeling throughout; school-FY and municipal-CY records kept distinct; restricted vs. unrestricted, recurring vs. one-time, and operating vs. capital separated; internal transfers eliminated only in consolidation with the bridge retained; no double-counting of overlapping insurance categories; the $10,000 tax bill presented as illustrative only; no record described as withheld/denied merely because it was not found online. Nothing was invented: no missing records, transactions, quantities, savings, corrective-action statuses, legal violations, or claims about motive. Where evidence was thin, conclusions are thin. Absence of a detected exception is not a clean bill of health.
Priority verification steps (highest materiality × evidence gaps): (1) the FY2026 school audit (~Oct 2026) as the first independent check on CAP implementation (CAP received Oct 15, 2026); (2) benefit/insurance enrollment-by-tier decomposition (renewal rates and Ch. 44 actuals received); (3) ~~final-adopted FY2026–27 school budget~~ retrieved 2026-09-18 (adopted $38,629,369); (4) municipal fixed-asset appraisal evidence — CAP adopted 7/20/2026 (Res. 26-207); no implementation evidence through 9/21/2026; (5) Lincoln Park agreement — terms and tuition schedule verified, signed agreement file UNEXTRACTED, rate methodology denied as confidential; (6) facilities condition assessment + cooling inventory; (7) ~~municipal five-year department trends~~ rebuilt 2026-09-18 (rev pass 3) — each year's own adopted budget used with transposition awareness (2022/2024 adopted budgets located: View/4342, View/5381); the systematic column transposition is documented as an audit contribution in §6.3; 2021 workbook fully re-read 2026-09-18 (Sheets 3/11/27, visual; all figures matched the trend CSV; 2021 revenue Sheet 11 not transposed); the 2023 budget's Sheets 3/11/12/27 fully arbitrated 2026-09-18 (all figures matched the trend CSV); (8) ~~the driver of the 2025 municipal debt-service spike ($2,139,668)~~ explained 2026-09-18 (one-time BAN payoff; see §6.2) — open question: the $99,000 gap between the $1,270,000 appropriated and the $1,171,000 BAN retired (W-28); (9) ~~resolution of the 2026 surplus contradiction~~ resolved 2026-09-18 — 2026 surplus is $3,058,000 (revenue reconciliation + transposition evidence); (10) which administrative positions were reduced 2022–2023 (personnel records — W-29).
Screening results (public records only). A 170-row contracts register (schedules/contracts-register.csv; build notes in working/i-, j-, k-, n-) covering municipal awards Jan 2023–mid-2026 and school awards Oct 2023–Jan 2026 supports no finding of favoritism, bid-splitting, conflicts, or procurement-law violations. What the record shows: a competitively bid capital program (the $4.5M wellfield award drew 8 bidders); a stable professional-services roster lawfully exempt from bidding; uniform non-fair-and-open/BED treatment in the annual group resolutions; and statutory handling of two no-bid paths. Observations kept as leads: one amount near the pay-to-play line (water-meter reading $17,383/yr, plausibly a flat monthly rate); two single-bidder awards (lawful when advertised); no bidder information published for non-fair-and-open awards; no bid tabulations, proposals, evaluation sheets, or executed contracts posted publicly for either entity; BED certifications seen only for the 2026 reorg group. The solid-waste award (Res. 23-271) is confirmed as the most recent on file but its vendor, amount, and bid record are unverified — the largest open procurement item. The ELEC donor cross-check (2023–2025) is complete and entered as leads with dates/amounts, never as findings. Full test-by-test results: §7 and working/n-procurement-screening.md.
Monitoring. monitoring-plan.md carries the 42-item discrepancy watchlist (each with the exact resolving evidence and re-check timing), the calendar of recurring releases (school budget adoption in April, UFB in July, ACFR/AMR in the fall; municipal reorganization January 1, budget adoption spring, audit mid-year; ELEC and ethics filings on their cycles), and a quarterly check procedure anyone can follow. A watchlist item closes only on cited evidence, never on elapsed time.
End of full report. All figures labeled by period, fund, and basis as sourced. Interpretations are identified; unanswered questions and records still needed are kept separate from original-document facts.