10/16/2026
Will Holmdel Become the School District for the Entire Bayshore?
The candidates running against LoPresti, Libecci, and Hayden for the Holmdel Board of Education have proposed allowing students from outside the district to attend Holmdel schools. Before taxpayers embrace this idea, several important questions must be answered.
How many additional students would be admitted?
Would existing classroom capacity accommodate the increased enrollment, or would the district need additional classrooms, teachers, support staff, transportation, and educational resources?
Would the tuition revenue actually exceed the full cost of educating these students? Any financial analysis must account for all expenses, including staffing, facilities, special education services when applicable, transportation, and the impact on existing district resources.
And perhaps most importantly, what would be the impact on the quality of education for Holmdel’s own students?
Ms. Ashkar is running under the banner “Advocates for Education.” That raises a legitimate question for her and her running mates: Is the proposal intended to serve Holmdel students, or could it turn Holmdel into a regional school district serving students from throughout the Bayshore?
There may be opportunities to generate additional revenue through carefully structured tuition programs. But the financial benefits cannot simply be assumed. The district must demonstrate, with actual enrollment projections and a transparent cost-benefit analysis, that the proposal is educationally sound and financially worthwhile.
Holmdel’s schools have earned their reputation for academic excellence through years of investment, hard work, and community commitment. Any new revenue initiative must be evaluated against its full costs and its potential effects on current students.
Before expanding enrollment, let's see the numbers. Protecting educational excellence and being responsible with taxpayer dollars must remain priorities. See less
