JACKSON – The township’s Board of Education has approved the $40 million sale of the former Christa McAuliffe Middle School building and property to Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG).
BMG is a Haredi Jewish Litvishe yeshiva located on Private Way in Lakewood Township. It was founded by Rabbi Aharon Kotler in 1943 and is the second-largest yeshiva in the world, after Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
According to BMG’s website, as of 2025, it had over 9,000 students, between bochurim and married with Kollel status. It is an IRS 501(c)3 not-for-profit, licensed and accredited New Jersey institution of higher education.
The purchaser has not yet revealed any details about how it intends to utilize the site, and no official plans for the property on South Hope Chapel Road have been made public.
The purchase agreement involved several price adjustments by the district as it sought a buyer for the large, vacant campus. Christa McAuliffe Middle School was named after a teacher who went into space and lost her life in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Her motto, “I touch the future, I teach” encapsulated her belief in the profound impact teachers have on shaping future generations.
The property was originally offered earlier this year with a minimum bid of $54.4 million. Only one bid was submitted and it was for $25.5 million. After reevaluating market conditions and buyer interest, Board members reduced the minimum bid during the Board’s November 19 meeting, to $44,418,000.
BOE officials said the reduction was made after several low bids were received and this was a means to move the property from district ownership.
District leaders emphasized that, while it is deeply heartbreaking to part with a school that has served students and the community with pride for decades, the Board is confident that the district received a fair price for a beautiful and well-maintained facility.
“This was not a decision made lightly,” Superintendent of Schools Nicole Pormilli told The Jackson Times. “Christa McAuliffe Middle School holds tremendous meaning for our students, staff, and families. However, due to significant funding losses, the sale of this property represents a responsible and necessary step for the district and for Jackson taxpayers.”
She noted that the Board of Education reaffirmed its commitment to fiscal responsibility and long-term planning, noting that the sale allows the district to navigate ongoing financial challenges while maintaining core programs and services for the Jackson community.
“Without this difficult move, our district would be looking very, very different right now, We hope the community can understand that,” Pormilli added.
She also noted that without the revenue generated by this sale, the district would have been forced to consider deep cuts to existing programs and services. The anticipated revenue from the sale of the building will serve two purposes – as revenue to support the current 2025-2026 budget as anticipated, and as revenue to support future budgets.
“While we need these funds to continue to operate our district, there remains uncertainty about the future of the state funding formula that caused our multi-year state aid shortfalls in the first place,” Business Administrator Daniel Baginski said.
Baginski added, “We need systemic change to a state aid mechanism that has caused such a tremendous deficit in the district and others.”
His office set a deadline for all bids to be publicly opened and read on December 12. The site includes a campus that features a main school structure spanning more than 126,000 square feet, along with five modular classroom units adding roughly 3,500 additional square feet.
The grounds also include athletic facilities, office space, and a cafeteria equipped with a full-service kitchen. Due to its scale and features, the property was considered one of the district’s most valuable land assets.
The school had a special farewell event that brought past and present students and staff together before it was closed over the summer amid the school district’s ongoing financial pressures primarily caused by the state’s S2 state aid funding formula.
Board members and administrators noted continued declines in enrollment which led to reductions in state funding and recurring budget deficits as key factors leading to the closure. Nonpublic busing has also skyrocketed in the school district by 816%.
This marked the second school building and property that was closed and sold by the school district in the last two years. The Sylvia Rosenauer Elementary School, a 60-year-old school was sold as part of a sweeping round of cuts that the district experienced in 2024. It was sold in order to balance the school district’s budget.
The Sylvia Rosenauer school was sold for $13.1 million to Bais Yaakov of Jackson, an Orthodox Jewish school, in late 2024/early 2025. The school was known as the Brookwood School when it opened in 1962 and was renamed in 1978 to honor the school’s first principal.
