The BOE budget has failed, now what?
I’ve gotten a few emails asking what the process is when the BOE budget fails. In short, it goes to Council. What has happened in the past is the Council would hire a consultant, often a past Superintendant, to review the budget and make suggestions. A subcommittee of Council (usually 4 people) meets with a BOE subcommittee (4) and staff from both sides. That is typically a closed meeting. Then there is a public meeting where the BOE makes a presentation and the public makes comments. The Council then can leave the budget alone or cut it. I suppose Council could increase the budget but that’s not likely. When Council cuts it, we have to cut or reduce specific line items. The BOE must follow the amount that is cut but they don’t have to follow the specific items. The BOE can appeal the cuts to the Commissioner of Education Bret Schundler.
Those are the rules and practices, what are the practicalities? I expect to hear the following points. This list is in part from things I’ve heard stated at BOE meetings. Please don’t try to read my mind from the list. I’m not advocating or opposing any of these. I’m not even saying if they are true or not. Nor am I indicating that there is no need to state them since I’ve already heard it, many Council members have not heard them. I’m simply compiling information for my purpose below.
- The slim margin of the defeat (34) or about 1/2% (atually with provisional ballots its 24).
- High salaries of some administrators
- The importance of sports
- The importance of the arts
- The amount that has already been cut from the budget
- The Governor
- Teachers forgoing their raises
- Teachers paying part of their health benefits
- The administrators have made salary concessions
- The economy/ lost jobs/ fixed incomes
My purpose
I’d like to hear from you. I’d like people to write in and tell me what you would do if you were on Council. But more important than what you would do is your reasoning. This is not a scientific way to poll so I will not be counting opinions, rather I’ll be looking for novel insights into the situation. I’m not looking to be convinced as much as taught. Enough disclaimers, let’s hear from you.
Phil, I don’t think anyone wants to see teachers get the boot (thats the primary reason for schools obviously…teaching) But you’ll get little argument that the school administration is top heavy and with a few cuts there we could save quite a few dollars.I wouldn’t like to see athletics cut either, but they are expensive. As in most non school sports, the parents pay a few dollars to participate, whether it’s Little League, Pop Warner football, or one of the local basketball programs. I wouldn’t think it out of line to ask the parents to contribute. Anything would help.
Are the comments we leave visible to everyone or just to you????
What do you mean by website?
I put this up to clear up this issue. Please read the comment rules page.
I can’t help but think there is still much duplication. Administration, support persons, and above all teachers salaries which should definitely be frozen considering the sacrifices others are having to make. I believe it is not a big item but it would indicate a willingness to help and place them in a much better light than currently exists. Your idea of finding and even hiring a professional school budget auditor in anticipation of the budget going down was a good one. I was disappointed when it was tabled and not taken seriously. IF the BOE wants to gain the support of the community it must start reductions at the top and work down the chain.
Slim margin of defeat: If I worked in NYC, like I used to, I wouldn’t have made it home in time to vote in the election. Elections should be held on a weekend.
The high salaries of some admins: look in your back yard Franklin TWP. What do the admins at the private schools make? St. Matthias (Blue Ribbon school – or so I am told) as an example. What does their state/fed/taxpayer aid total? What do those teachers make?
What’s the cost to educate a kid at St. Matthias? The tuition is around $5K per year (I think). Classes are about 30 per class with NO aids past Kindergarten. How do they test? What’s the cost to educate a kid in Franklin? What’s Franklin’s test scores with people upset about the amt of kids per class/lack of aids?
The importance of sports and arts: Do the math. How many students participate in either and at what cost to the taxpayers? 20% participation? Pay to play/dance/act/put your wet clay pencil holder in a kiln. How many super-stars have come out of Franklin Twp? Is it worth it or is focusing on education and putting the “money” where the test scores aren’t a better bet? If a child REALLY is THAT talented, someone will take notice…hopefully the PARENT and not the babysitters. If that doesn’t happen, too bad. Education, knowing how to read/write and do a little math…. is always a nice back-up. Ray Rice is going to end up back in college when he blows out a knee or gets one too many concussions….
Skipping over some bullets and going to teachers foregoing their “raises”: a 52 week salaried employed person works 2080 per year (already adjusted for 2 weeks paid vacation and 7-8 paid holidays and earned (.25 days per month) sick days (not including staying late, bringing work home or working on weekends). Your average teacher making $50K per year earns about $35/hr. His private sector counterpart, working the 52 weeks per year at $50K, earns $24/hr. The downside to NOT being a teacher is that you have to pay for your health care and don’t get free health care for life when you retire. The other downside is that many private sector counterparts have also either taken pay cuts or been laid off or watched their companies go out of business and are collecting unemployment.
There’s always private school to teach in…if you’re really all about, and got into the education field, for THE KIDS!
Where’s the Franklin Twp vo-tech for the kids who aren’t “college material”? Is there one? Why make a kid who doesn’t care and has no support from home (my tax dollars allocated to the twp public schools are TIRED of caring and supporting) sit through classes that s/he could give one $#&^ about? Can’t read by 10th grade? Maybe you could run a drill press or cut sheet metal or learn how to tune up a car that runs on a computer chip or wash/cut hair or learn how to bill HMOs? Something more constructive than disrupting school dances with attitudes and joining the gangs of new brunswick that have been creeping into FTWP?
Nothing is going to change until the system changes the way it thinks and does business. A bigger and better HS did squat. Middlebush Park did squat. The library addition did squat. Pouring more money into the same broke-down system (via property tax payers dollars) does NADA.
I give you credit for asking for input, but it’s not going to change anything. It never has. I’ve lived here for 35+ years and it’s the same old junk. Nothing changes. Franklin has a reputation that exceeds itself….and one that crosses state lines, I might add. It’s embarrassing. A start would be ending the ability to be a BOE member and a council member and a teacher/school admin. Or however the mix may be. You can’t be partial and fair when it’s about your kid…or your job…or your grand kid…or your wife or niece is a teacher…etc.
There are some points I agree with and some I don’t. One reason the cost of a student at St. Matthias is lower and scores are highers is that FT has to take all comers. St. Mattias does not. Also if a family is willing to spend $5K (?) additional on education they are more likely to make sure they don’t waste the money.
Dear Mr. Kramer: Thank you for expressing your views on the BOE Budget and sharing vital information. In my opinion, the budget did not pass because of the cuts made that will effect the parents as well as the children. Educational programs that are beneficial to the success of our students are criitcal. To cut programs that inspire, motivate and empower students to want to learn and explores is detrimental.
I believe that a budget that can incorporate fairness in salaries across the board would be one avenue to explore. Granted the administrators have taken a salary freeze, but looking over the payroll of the schools, administrators, and staff there is serious disparages in who gets paid what. I do believe that people should be paid for the work they do.
If I was a council member I would review the following areas to determine if money could be saved and redirected to assist with continuing programs that would benefit the community overall:
1. Salary reviews
2. Transportation for non-public schools–possible subsidy-eliminate full funding
3. Programs that could be clustered
4. Strengthening Volunteer Programs-Involving local senior groups/churches
In my opinion, regardless of how the budget game plays out-tax increase are inevitable, it all depends on how much and where these tax dollars are going to be applied. There is a call for every fraction of life to sacrifice, this should include top executives, teachers and administrators. I think that if the community could see a fairness in the budget, there would be greater cooperation.
Without an effective manner in which to address the concerns of the community, its residents and our children, we will continue to see a decline in our education, schools and community. Point of concern: the increase in school bomb threats, increase unemployment, good/seasoned teachers leaving the profession, direct effect on student behavior.
Gov. Christies, and constituents need to understand “pandora’s box”. Cutting the schools resources at this stage is a recipe for disaster. New Jersey schools are failing to meet current standards, and will continue to downslide if resources are eliminated.
Thank you for allowing me to voice my opinion.
I believe the budget should be passed as is and here are my reasons:
Mr. Kramer,
Thank you for taking the time to provide an explanation of the process and to solicit suggestions for moving forward. Based on the very narrow margin of defeat, and on the extreme importance of educating our children (whether you have children of your own, or not), I believe that the council should go back with the highest budget that they feel can be politically defended. Personally, I would vote “yes” to a budget that is increased from the original budget number, and I believe that it is very likely that there are at least 34 parents that were just too busy running their kids to Little League or soccer (or one of a hundred other things that consumes parents’ time), but who would be galvanized to come out and vote “yes” based on this slim margin of defeat, and on the high degree of press that this has received.
Thank you for your comments. I think we will hear repeatedly about the thin margin of the budget defeat. The argument that some were too busy to vote can be made by both sides. We also should consider that there was an organized effort by some the pass the budget but other than the Governor’s bully pulpit there was no organized effort to defeat it. My inclination is that if the budget passed by one vote then it passed, if it failed by one vote then it failed.
1. To Councilman Kramer,
Thank you for the additional information re: the provisional votes. This means the actual difference between the “yeas” and “nays” on the 2010 Franklin Township School Budget was only 24 not 34 votes. It is also my understanding from some of the email comments (that a group of our concerned citizens have been getting) that some people who voted against the budget did so as they thought (mistakenly) that they were voting AGAINST the proposed BUDGET CUTS…
I did comment, somewhat in jest, about recommending a $34 further cut…but now I can amend that to $24 or to be super generous to those who voted against the budget $25.
It seems there are people who did not understand how many millions of dollars were already cut from the budget. Lowering our standards in the schools will not improve the situation in town for anyone. Keeping the students in school and engaged in beneficial, educational activities both during and after school will only make for a total better community. I would much rather see students involved in theater, orchestra, art or sports then hanging out on the corners someplace.
One of the current school projects is a school vegetable garden. The future plans for these gardens are to expand them to be able to provide fresh vegetables (with out shipping or packaging or additives) to the community at minimal costs. Other activities include environmental clean up.
As far as budget cuts go, well they were already drastically cut by our new Governor. Not surprisingly however, Governor Christie raised his own budget and also gave his staff a 10% increase in wages. (Please correct me if I am misinformed). He is also only refusing to tax the very rich. This leaves out most of us. We as adults have to be the ones who speak out for our children. (Has anyone compared the cost of what it costs us to keep someone in high school for a year compared to what it costs to keep someone in prison? I do not have the numbers at my finger tips but I believe it was something like $8000 for a high school student compared to over $20,000 for a prisoner.) Personally I would rather be giving my taxes to help develop young people’s skills and talents as well as confidence and good attitudes by having the best possible educational system we can offer.
Some of the most beneficial activities in this town include seniors, students, and teachers working together. As a tax paying citizen and Franklin resident of 21 years (that means I’ve lived in town for 21 years) I feel very strongly that we need to support our schools as a way of supporting both our present and our future. PLEASE do not do any more cutting from an already tremendously reduced budget!
Also can you let us know when the special Town Council Meeting to discus the school budget will be?
Thank you,
XXXXX XXXXXX
[Kramer's Comment - For context, this person has a child in school and attends BOE meetings. The Council will meet in public on the BOE Budget on May 11]
I respectfully disagree with anyone who thinks that the time is wrong for the teachers union to agree to a freeze. My husband has been a teamster for 20 years. Last year, in the middle of the contract term, his union took two separate paycuts totally a 15% reduction in pay and agreed that the employer could stop paying into the pension for 18 months. There has never been a more appropriate time to make sacrifices for the good of all, including the children and those teachers who will be without any paycheck if the union doesn’t come to the table on this.