Faced with a $3 million deficit that’s expected to only get worse, the Middletown Board of Education recently voted to close two elementary schools, angering parents and students alike.

The school board voted 5-4 to direct officials to craft a budget anticipating the closure of Leonardo Elementary School and Navesink Elementary School during a tense and confrontational Feb. 26 meeting.

“What concerns me most about this proposal itself is not just the proposal, but how we got here,” said school board member Mark Soporowski. “We’re discussing closing schools because of years of financial mismanagement and a failure to engage in long-term planning.”

Last year, the Monmouth County school board approved a 10.1% tax increase to save the two schools and Bayshore Middle School. But the drastic measure wasn’t enough to offset the deficit.

Instead, it was a “temporary bridge” to buy time, officials said in a recently released restructuring plan. If the status quo remains, the district could face a nearly $14 million deficit by the end of the decade.

Leonardo and Navesink will be consolidated into one school, which will be called Bayshore Elementary School, according to the restructuring plan. Bayshore Middle School students will be rezoned to Thorne and Thompson, two nearby middle schools.

The closures are expected to save the district $3.5 to $4 million per year, officials said in the restructuring plan. Bayshore Middle School was not mentioned in the Feb. 26 resolution members voted on.

But the plan lacks a comprehensive strategy to fix the district’s fiscal crisis, and it would lead to overcrowding, according to Soporowski and other board members who opposed the closures. The fiscal crisis has been known for years, but officials have not properly acted to fix it, they said.

“There is no plan,” school board member Erin Torres told NJ.com. “Every question that I’ve asked regarding that plan is met with general answers.”

Health insurance premiums have risen, and other factors have contributed to the escalating budget deficit, according to Torres, who joined the board this year. But it’s still not clear what exactly led to the crisis, she added.

“I do know that this has been going on, and they’ve been using one-time sources of revenue to plug the budget,” Torres said. “And it has not been taken care of the way it should have been.”

If the district of nearly 8,800 students continues on its current path while anticipating tax levy increases of only 2% each year, it will still face multimillion budget deficits over the next several years, according to district officials.

Board president Chris Aveta didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Complicating the matter is the district’s shifting leadership. Superintendent Jessica Alfone announced last month that she will retire at the end of the school year to pursue education-related opportunities in the private sector.

Her Feb. 12 letter didn’t address the district’s fiscal crisis.

Students urged board members during the meeting’s public comment period to keep the schools open, sharing stories of what they and their teachers mean to them.

Members of the public also repeatedly shouted interruptions and booed some of the board members during the meeting, which lasted more than five hours.

“We are not just fighting for one school,” one parent said. “We are here for all the schools.”

The recently released restructuring plan closely mirrors “Middletown Reimagined,” the district’s controversial plan to restructure the district amid the looming budget gap.

It was fiercely opposed by the community at the time.

NJ.com staff writer AJ McDougall contributed to this report.

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