The HOWELL Times
Vol. 23 - No. 49
In This Week’s Edition
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
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Rainy Art Festival More Than Watercolors
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Community News
Photos by Andrew Rice (Above) Art sellers brave the rain to come to the Creative Arts Festival and sell their work. (Left) Paintings from the MonmouthNJ 250 Art Show Display.
Pages 6-7
Inside The Law Page 10
Dear Pharmacist Page 10
Classifieds Page 13
By Andrew Rice MONMOUTH COUNTY - Hundreds of art enthusiasts and sellers braved the rain to make their way out to Thompson Park in Lincroft for the annual Creative Arts Festival hosted by the
Monmouth County Park System. The event itself featured around 50-60 different sellers, spread across two barns on the property and along the main pathway between them. To be a seller at
the event, artists had to submit their ar t for review and receive approval from the event organizers to be vendors. A few of the different types of arts and crafts for sale included glass art, oil paintings, pottery, jewelry, animal drawings, landscape
paintings, and artisan handbags. The art on sale wasn’t t he on ly a r t available for viewing, as the festival also had an art display for the MonmouthNJ 250 Art Show. The display featured several in-depth paintings themed after the Revolutionary War, (Festival - See Page 4)
Dad Sentenced In Baby’s Death, Mom Cleared
Photo by Stephanie Faughnan Ruben Santiago becomes emotional during his sentencing hearing in Ocean County Superior Court.
By Stephanie Faughnan JERSEY SHOR E - For eight months, Caitlin Gibson sat in the Ocean County Jail accused of murdering her own baby daughter. She returned to the courtroom as a grieving mother listening as prosecutors described the devastating injuries that killed the three-month-old infant before a judge sentenced the child’s father, Ruben Santiago, to 25 years in state prison and formally dismissed
the charges against her later. Quiet sniffles and muffled crying could be heard inside the courtroom as Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan recounted the abuse suffered by the infant before her death in May 2025. Prosecutors said the baby suffered multiple skull fractures, bleeding on the brain, seven fractured ribs in various stages of healing and a broken wrist, injuries so severe that medical (Sentenced - See Page 2)
May 16, 2026
$246M School Budget Presented
By Andrew Rice FREEHOLD - The Freehold Regional High School District hosted its annual public hearing on the budget. The hearing included a presentation on the budget that explained how the funds available to the district are being used. According to Superintendent Dr. Nicole Hazel, the budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year stands at just over $246 million. Alex Ferreira gave the budget presentation as the Assistant Superintendent for Business Administration. Before getting into the slides of the presentations, Ferreira said the Freehold Regional High School District is facing similar difficulties compared to other local districts that are making news headlines across the state for the struggles that they are going through. He also mentioned that unless there is a change to how education is supported in New Jersey, the district is going to continue to go down that road, which he believes will lead to excessive tax levy increases in the future. The budget is expected to increase by 1.76 percent - approximately $4 million - to a total of $246.3 million. The total operating budget itself stands at around $240 million. The tax levy is expected to rise by 4.24 percent, or just under $8 million, to a total of $196,357,036 for the 2026-2027 school year. However, state aid is expected to decrease by $2,169,011 to 31,318,290, which is an overall decrease in state aid by 6.48 percent. This reflects a trend where the district has seen decreasing amounts of state aid over the past few years. According to the presentation given by Ferreira, state aid for the district has decreased by more than $20 million over the past 10 years. He also mentioned how this is partially due to the fact that district enrollment has gone down, meaning that the state views the district as needing less money because of it. This means that the dependency the district has on the local taxpayer is getting stronger and stronger with each passing year. The largest increase in costs that are going into the budget includes the costs of benefits and the costs of services. The increase in costs for benefits is due to varying factors, such as rising medical costs, while the increase in costs for services is largely due to the work they are looking to do on various facilities in the district, which includes projects that Hazel has outlined over the past few Board of Education meetings. (Budget - See Page 4)
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