Joyce Kilmer School in Milltown

By Sam Barron From Daily Voice

Parents in Middlesex County have been ordered to pay nearly $42,000 after their two children was improperly enrolled in the Milltown School District while they lived in North Brunswick, according to a ruling from the New Jersey Commissioner of Education.

The parents, who were identified only as B.M. and P.M. lived in North Brunswick between November 2023 and March 2025 while their new home was being constructed in Milltown, the ruling says. Once they received a temporary certificate of occupancy, they moved into the Milltown home. 

Judge Allison Friedman's ruling shows a family constantly claiming necessity and financial hardships while making false claims about their residency, which she says do not seem to conform to reality.

In May 2024, the parents entered into a tuition reimbursement agreement with the Milltown School District. In August, Milltown informed the parents their children would be disenrolled if the parents became noncompliant with the reimbursement agreement, leading to the parents to file an appeal of the district's non-residency determination, the ruling says.

After having children, the family moved to Milltown, where the mother grew up, purchasing a 700-square foot three-bedroom home on Townsend Street. The family sold the home and entered into a lease agreement for an apartment in Milltown. At the same time, the family entered into an agreement with a contractor to rebuild the mother's childhood home on Highland Drive. Construction was only set to take six months.

During this time, the father notified the district of the family's move to the apartment. But soon after, the family moved to a larger home in North Brunswick, claiming they had been illegally locked out of their Milltown apartment, court papers say. But the judge didn't buy their explanation. 

"Although it was an allegedly illegal and unexpected lockout, the family had all their valuable property with them, such as televisions, computers, schoolwork, and clothes," Judge Friedman said. "These facts support that there was no illegal lockout and that [the parents]. decided to leave Clay Street and move to a larger home in North Brunswick."

The school district was tipped off by their former landlord that they no longer lived on the property. The family tried to claim financial hardship, a clam the judge said was "most troubling," ruling, "the record is devoid of any evidence that [the parents]. endured economic hardship," noting each home they moved into got progressively larger.

In April 2024, the parents provided Milltown with affidavit of residency, where they claimed they lived on Highland Drive. But when asked where the family "resided", the mother said they lived in the North Brunswick home. 

"The multiple and significant contradictions between the testimony of the parents and between the testimony and the admitted exhibits diminish the credibility of their testimony," Friedman said.

There was no evidence the children ever slept in, let alone lived in, the Highland Drive home until 2025.

"From November 16, 2023, [the children] slept at, ate at, did their daily activities at, and were driven to and from Milltown schools by [their mother] from the North Brunswick home," Judge Friedman ruled. 

Judge Friedman determined the family was not homeless and did not move to North Brunswick out of necessity, which would've allowed them to continue to attending Milltown free of charge.

"They resided in an adequate, single-family home in North Brunswick and their children had their own bedrooms," Judge Friedman found.

Because the children continued to attend school in Milltown when they lived in North Brunswick, a judge found the parents were responsible for payment of tuition to the School Board, which added up to $41,996.76